


The Beauty and her Beast

by GuiltyKingOumaShu



Category: Wakfu
Genre: F/M, now also featuring sex scenes. wheee
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2019-11-19 07:35:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 90,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18132803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuiltyKingOumaShu/pseuds/GuiltyKingOumaShu
Summary: Once upon a time, a beast-like Iop and a beautiful Cra ended up being locked up in heavy combat that lasted for a very long time. One day, with his tremendous strength, he tore down the heavy fortifications she had built around herself and managed to steal her most precious treasure, her heart. Marveling at the most beautiful treasure he had ever seen, he was unwilling to ever part from it again, so he fled. As she chased after him to retrieve what was hers, she eventually managed to pin him down, subduing him. Taming him. However, now that he held her heart, she was no longer able to keep him on a leash, so she eventually showed mercy on him and let him go, only for him to never leave. Having witnessed not only her beauty, but also her kindness, he decided to stay at her side, protecting her, cherishing her. In the end, she realized that there was no safer place for her heart but his hands, after all. She never ended up taking it back from him. Instead, he offered her his own, which in turn, would become her new most precious treasure.This is the story of the Beauty and her Beast. The Cra and her Iop. Eva and Dally.[A collection of episodic Tristeva chapters because I ship them and you can't stop me.]





	1. Iopification

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there,
> 
> So, I recently watched Wakfu (Yeah, I know. A bit late to the game now, am I...?) and couldn't help but utterly fall in love with Tristepin and Evangelyne. I ship them so hard, in fact, that the meager amount of fanfics available to me on this site were not even nearly enough to sate my hunger. So, since I am shipping them harder than FedEx, I suppose I had no other choice but to write my own fanfics, which surprised me since I usually never branch out to other fandoms aside from the main one I write for. Still, the last time I was hyping a pairing so much was back in 2011/2012, so I think the discovery of the beauty that is Tristeva justifies me stepping out of my boundaries.
> 
> That being said, I have never played the game and therefore know nothing about the lore and terminology outside of the animation. That doesn't really bother me since I do not intent to do much world building or anything of the sort. I am just here to ship and preach about Tristeva. Nothing more, nothing less. If you came here to ship with me, great. Come aboard and let us sail off together. If not, feel free to stick around anyway, I suppose. Just don't get mad at me for not using the correct words. Like, I am not gonna research what the animals in the world of Wakfu are called or anything. Call me lazy but I don't particularly care if that thing's a gobbal or a miniature sheep or whatever.
> 
> This fanfic will be a collection of episodic chapters revolving around Tristeva. Some will follow canon events, some will slightly divert from canon and some will be my weird depiction of my personal headcanon (like disregarding or postponing the start of S3 to instead write more slice-of-life-ish chapters revolving about the Percedal family life without the need to see Adamai's wanna be Frieza-face daring to fling away a pregnant Evangelyne. That bastard.)
> 
> So, while we wait for the next season to come out (*loads shotgun to aim it at anyone who claims otherwise*), here is my humble attempt to satisfy my fellow Tristeva shippers with my entry to the fandom.
> 
> Enjoy.

* * *

**The Beauty and her Beast**

**Iopification**

When did this happen…?

She clearly remembered meeting this idiot for the first time and thinking he was such a darn **fool** _hero_. She used to look at his **annoying** _handsome_ face and get the urge to slap that **stupid** _cute_ grin right off it. Every time he had opened his mouth, she had used to roll her eyes at him. Now? She smiled! Why? It's not like the quality of his speech had improved at all! If anything, it had only gotten worse with every passing day.

_Sometimes she was really worried for him and his tiny Iop brain…_

No! See! She did it again! Why would she, the bodyguard of Princess Amalia Sheran Sharm waste her time with thinking about the wellbeing of some dumb Iop boy with a short fuse and too much energy to spend when she already had enough on her table looking over her spoiled and arrogant childhood friend?

Look, she could somewhat understand how she had become the unofficial mother of this weird band of adventurers they had turned out to be, given how she was the only one around here either old, responsible or intelligent enough to fit the bill and it was not like she particularly _hated_ doing it, either.

It was a given to look after Yugo, since he was still young. Amalia had been her responsibility from the get-go and Ruel…sigh…was just Ruel. Still, these three _combined_ weren't even half as troublesome to deal with as this so-called _knight_ turned out to be.

Always charging in headfirst with a **childish** _brave_ battle cry, never even stopping for a second to think of a strategy or a backup plan. Those were for cowards and wusses, clearly, when you could simply swing around your sword recklessly and **endanger the whole group** … _although he had also saved them all numerous times, too…_

There, again with these thoughts!

She grabbed her head on each side in frustration and shook it fiercely.

Cra, just end this madness, please! Free her from this cruel curse you have put on her.

Stop this weird iopification of her brain before it was too late!

But her prayers remained unanswered as her thoughts continued to torment her still, shoving this darn redhead's face right back in just as she had momentarily succeeded in pushing it out.

She sighed in defeat, letting her head hang.

Why, Cra, why? Why did you punish her so? What had she done to deserve this cruelty? Had she not lived her life in a way befitting of a Cra? She had never slacked off during her training, had always maintained her bow to her utmost best, had never abandoned her duty, never dishonored nature…

So, why? At least tell her that!

But again, no answer. Cra must be really mad with her, huh. Such misfortune.

Of course she knew what weird ailment was befalling her. She wasn't stupid, after all. Not yet, anyway. It's just that she would never have thought something as stupid as _this_ would happen to her.

This was supposed to happen to everyone _else_. You know, the foolish ones. The ones with too much time on their hands and too little to do to make up for it. Those kinda people. Not her, no. She had a job. A mission. And she took it very seriously, mind you. She had no time for this nonsense. These **distractions**.

_Beautiful as they may be…_

Another sigh.

Really, she had been supposed to keep herself focused on her goals. To hone her skills and perfect them in order to remain at Amalia's side as her bodyguard and protect her forever. She had been supposed to guide the princess and teach her the way to behave properly so she would, one day, make a fine queen. The king of the Sadida kingdom was counting on her here.

She had been so sure she could do it, so determined she would not fail this task…only to have one self-declared knight waltz right over all her plans, swinging his sword around like he always did only to leave nothing in his wake but utter chaos.

Urgh, this could not be happening! This was not the path she had envisioned for herself. She had made the resolve to devote her life solely to her duty a long time ago. Why could fate not accept that?

She gritted her teeth in frustration and with a clenched fist, she thought she should:

 **Smack the fool right in the lips.** _You are supposed to kiss those, silly._

 **Put her arms around his neck and strangle him** _with a loving hug?_

 **Shove him into Ruel's bag and make him suffocate in there!** _Wouldn't it be better to climb in there with him when no one's looking?_

Nooooooo!

She tangled her fingers in her hair as she screamed internally.

"Calm down, Eva. You can do this! Just think about all the things you hate about Dally. Easy." She told herself. She took a seat on a big stone near her and assumed a meditative position. Alright. Deep breaths. She could do this. Focus!

Going on and on about stupid stuff like becoming heroes and entering the legend. **Check.**

Complete lack of common sense and etiquette. **Go on.**

Can't even spell etiquette. She smirked. **Good one.**

Snores like a log. Dumb like one, too. **Keep going.**

The way he called her name. _Makes your knees go weak, doesn't it?_ **H-huh? Hold on.**

The way he always showed up at the perfect time to save her from harm… _So heroic!_ **What are you doing?**

Always seeking to aid the weak and protect them from the wicked. _His brain may be small, but his heart is all the bigger!_ **Stoooooop!**

**Time out! Time. Out!**

_The hell is your problem?_

**You** **are my problem! I am trying to save us from doing a grave mistake.**

 _Nobody_ _asked_ _you. Who are you supposed to be anyway?_

**The voice of reason, obviously.**

_See, Eva, there is your problem. You try to listen to reason when you should be listening to the only thing that really matters. Me. The heart._

The blonde Cra face-palmed. Okay, that was it. Not only had she started hearing voices, they were also fighting each other in her head. She had finally lost it. She was nuts! Nuts!

**The only thing nuts here is that we are having this kind of discussion in the first place. Over this Iop brain nonetheless.**

_You are the Iop brain here for always holding Eva back. No more! Her springtime of youth has finally arrived!_

Oh for the love of….! She hid away her face in embarrassment over her own stupid delusions. These voices were starting to be even more annoying than Percedal.

**See this? You are inconveniencing Eva. Cease this nonsense.**

_You cease!_

**No, you!**

_You!_

**You!**

Enough!

Evangelyne shut her eyes in anger and annoyance, gritting her teeth and letting her brows tremble in anger and frustration. She gave up. If this is how it had to be, then she would just admit it already. Anything to let this madness end at last!

She took a deep breath to calm down, then opened her jade eyes and accepted defeat in dignity.

She had fallen in love with Dally.

Her cheeks flared up with heat at that realization, but her mind, having been an utter clusterfuck just seconds before, had finally calmed down. The mental war was over. The voices had finally died down. There was peace at last. That alone had made it worth it.

She sighed. Another one of the many sighs she had let out over the past days, albeit this one was slightly different, for it had been one uttered out of relief. It was finally over.

Though, now that she had come to terms with her new situation, she wondered if she hadn't merely ended one fight to start a new one in its stead? After all, when It came to love, was there ever a point where it was truly over?

She leaned forward on her hand, letting her head rest on it tiredly as she narrowed her eyes listlessly. Oh Cra, why her? She had never asked for this! Although…now that she had given up resisting all these feelings welling up inside her, she had to admit that they felt quite nice to have, as stupid as they may have been. There was this certain warmth coming from deep within that had never been there before. It reminded her of being wrapped up with a warm blanket on a cold winter night in front of the fireplace, drinking her favorite tea and reading an interesting book. Not many things managed to make her feel this way. Love sure was something, huh. She smiled contently.

"How rare to see you smile, Eva!" Amalia said with a surprised expression as she stepped in front of her, followed to show some concern as she began touching her blonde friend's forehead. "You are quite red, too. Are you feeling sick?"

No, unless lovesickness counted.

That was the moment Ruel passed them by with his shovel in hand, taking a mere glance at Eva and already figuring out what was going on with those experienced eyes of his.

"Don't worry, Amalia. It's nothing, really. But you might wanna stay away from the boys, lest you catch the same." He told the princess with a knowing grin. That was before Eva managed to grab a nearby rock and threw it against his head to shoo him away angrily.

"Eurgh, really? I bet it's Dally, that filthy germ factory!" The oblivious princess exclaimed with visible disgust while the old Enutrof's smug grin grew even wider as he eyed Eva.

"I suspect the very same. Ah, to be young again." He laughed heartily before getting the tip of one of the Cra's energy arrows shoved into his face as she drew her bow threateningly at him.

"Don't you have some kamas to count, old man?" She smiled at him, yet couldn't have looked any more hostile if she tried. Luckily for her, Amalia misinterpreted her now beet-red face as a symptom of anger instead of shame.

Getting the hint, Ruel began sweating nervously and backed away slowly, still grinning.

"Q-quite so. Now, if you would excuse me, girls…" And just like that he scrammed, allowing Eva to relax again. Great. She hadn't even come to terms for longer than 10 minutes and was already getting teased for it. Off to a good start now, wasn't she?

That was the moment the notorious Sir Percedal came running at them with an excited grin, carrying three sticks in his hands which each held a still steaming piece of meat on it.

"Food's ready, food's ready! Everyone, feel free to eat as much as you want. Yugo and I caught lots today. Here, for the ladies." He was about to hand one over to Amalia but was surprised to see her back off in disgust.

"From you? Eww, no! I will go get my own one before I catch whatever it is that you have, thank you." And like that the snobby princess turned on her heels and left them on the spot, leaving a very confused Dally behind.

Raising a brow, he threw a questioning look Eva's way. "What's her problem?"

"Sometimes not even I can tell." Eva could do little but laugh guiltily as she took one of the portions he was carrying for herself.

"Well, more for me, I suppose." Dally chose to think nothing of it, given how Amalia was known for throwing around her hissy fits every once in a while. He had given up on trying to understand that girl a long time ago. He was about to turn around and leave when Eva stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder.

"It's quite boring to eat all alone, no? Now that Amalia has ditched me, would you like to keep me company instead?" She asked him with a slight blush, bashfully avoiding his gaze. Cra, what was she getting flustered about for...sheesh.

"I don't mind, but we would be better off going back to camp before Yugo and Ruel eat away the best parts." He told her while pointing back to the camp site near them.

"Moron." They heard Rubilax utter in between fake coughs, his eye rolling at his guardian's idiocy. Eva could do little but narrow her eyes on Dally, somewhat agreeing with the demonic sword hanging at his waist.

"Iop brain…" She muttered with a sigh.

"W-what? What is it?" He asked them in bewilderment. You could easily catch the exact moment he finally realized where exactly he had messed up simply by reading his facial expression. At first, confusion, followed by shock, then slight panic as well as a nervous grin that was hastily plastered on his face in a vain attempt to mask his blunder.

"O-oh, I meant it would be quite an honor to share your company, my lovely Evangelyne." He gave her a clumsy bow and scratched the back of his head nervously, hoping he hadn't blown his chance. His relief was quite visible in his sparkling eyes when she chose to merely smile at him, followed by tapping the empty space next to her, which he gratefully accepted.

The evening was then spent laughing together at jokes of which Ruel and Amalia ended to be the butt of, stories of their past as well as them staring into the cloudless sky, marveling at the stars. They ended up having so much fun together, neither of them seemed to notice how much the time flied and they tiredly ended up falling asleep shoulder on shoulder.

If anyone of their companions had ended up noticing their absence, none had bothered to go fetch them. Eva would consider being thankful for their mindfulness if she weren't so absolutely sure it would all come and bite them back in the morning to come.

Oh well, a small price to pay in the end…


	2. Cratalyst

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes places in between the end of episode 18 and the start of episode 19 where I take the small conversation Percedal had with Ruel and expand it a bit. Enjoy.
> 
> Don't worry, there is still plenty where this came from. Who knows, maybe even a lemon if I feel up for it.

* * *

**Cratalyst**

There were things in this word that just made little to no sense to him. Quite a few of them, actually.

The usual Iop way of dealing with things you didn't understand was very straightforward.

You checked if you could eat it. If you couldn't or weren't sure trying to was a good idea, you smashed it. If you couldn't smash it, that just meant you sucked and should go away and reflect on your pathetic self.

Dally didn't like the Iop way of dealing with this kind of problems, however. As a vivid visitor of dungeons, he actually very much enjoyed puzzles. They were a challenge, after all. And he _loved_ challenges.

He…just wasn't very good at solving puzzles, which was a shame. Still, that never stopped him from trying.

This one, however, he just couldn't wrap his head around.

For, you see, the day he had become a Shushu knight and set out on his grand adventure together with Rubilax, he had done something he usually didn't.

He had formed a plan.

Not a very complicated one, mind you. It was just a plan that was supposed to make sure he actually achieved his goal of becoming a true legend.

Now, he had figured that if he was to enter the legend, he would, naturally, have to do something cool. Duh.

But merely doing something cool wasn't good enough. It didn't make for a good story. And in the end, if a story wasn't good, people wouldn't tell it to others. If people didn't share a story, it would never become a legend. It would be forgotten.

So, he had thought, what made a good story? The answer had been fairly simple.

He clenched his right hand into a fist and hit his palm with it, grinning excitedly.

Battles, of course. Preferably epic ones.

But that wasn't all. He needed to do other exciting things aside from beating up some bad guys. Bandits beat each other up every day and those weren't particularly revered to as heroes. No, he needed to do heroic things as well, you see. Helping the needy, protecting the weak.

He nodded in a pleased way, crossing his arms in front of his chest. That's right. A hero saved people. And the best target for saving tended to be princesses. At least that's what the knights in the stories he had heard as a kid had always done. There must have been a reason for them always saving those, right?

Which brought him to yet another element he deemed crucial for an epic tale befitting to become a legend:

Romance. Specifically the tragic kind.

A knowing smirk spread itself on his lips. That was exactly right. The crowd would never forget the brave hero who sacrificed everything for his lover, giving his all in his final battle to protect her from the bad guy, even at the expense of his very life!

This was perfect. Such a story had everything, he mused. Battles, heroic deeds and tragic love which moved the hearts of the audience. Well, that was only assuming someone was actually strong enough to defeat him, which he doubted. Oh well, even without the tragedy, it would still make for a good story that way. If he managed to tell such a story, he would enter the legend for sure.

But that was exactly the problem now, wasn't it?

He had gathered the various puzzle pieces he needed in order to form his desired scenario…the problem was that they didn't match!

Let's see, they were currently on their way to the Sadida kingdom to warn and protect it from the crazy Xelor Nox. That foul ruffian sought out to destroy the tree of life that sustained the life of every follower of Sadida. Truly a horrible and vile thing to do. Surely opposing this abominable man would lead to battles of epic proportions. Just what he needed. His time to shine.

He drew a caricature version of Nox's face into the snow with a stick.

Alright, moving on. Next he needed a princess to protect. Luckily for him, he had managed to acquire that component ages ago. After all, he had been traveling around with one since the start of this amazing adventure. Easy.

Amalia's face was soon to join Nox' in the snow.

Last but not least, he needed romance. In other words, love, so he drew the last component into the snow. A heart.

And that's where things started to get complicated.

He already had two out of three in the bag. Nox was on the way to the Sadida kingdom and so was he. Amalia was with him, so the princess aspect had been taken care of as well. But the last one…

He took hold of his chin with a brooding expression as he tapped on the heart symbol in the snow with his stick.

It was missing.

This was bad. Really bad. The battle of the century was approaching. His once in a lifetime chance to fulfil his goal. He could not afford to miss it.

And in fact, he wasn't _really_ missing it. He could feel it in his heart, the strong feeling of love burning inside him like a bonfire, strong enough to give him courage. Give him strength. It got his blood pumping like when he was taking part in a good battle, made his heart beat in his chest - strong and loud - like the drums of war. It was a feeling that had been beyond his imagination before. With it, he felt as if he could achieve everything he ever wanted. With it, he was invincible!

The problem was…

…none of this had its source in Amalia.

He drew a fourth picture. This time of Evangelyne.

That's right. All of that was directed at her. Just looking at her from afar could ignite something inside him that could make him feel as if he was burning up from the inside. Feelings so strong, he could barely contain them, making him smile in excitement without even realizing it himself. But if he took all of that and directed his attention over to the real princess of the group, all of it died down immediately as if you would pour water over a fire from one moment to the next, making his smile of excitement turn into a frown of disappointment. And just like that, the magic was gone.

He needed the magic, though. It was a key component for his plan. Only with it could he tap into his hidden potential and find sources of strength he had previously never even known of. He was sure by now that the reason his previous adventures had been so lacking, so unfulfilling, had been the simple fact of him having missed this component.

It was simple, really. When he was thinking of Evangelyne, everything else seemed to fade out. He became able to do that which he previously never was able to do: Focus. Her presence in his mind simply obliterated everything else. All distractions – gone. All his doubts – eradicated. There suddenly was no room for hesitation. No room for unnecessary thoughts. Everything was boiled down to one simple thing even the dumbest Iop could understand.

Instinct.

Thinking about it, Iops were never meant to overthink their situation. Their god had never blessed them with the mental capacity to do so. Instead of wasting time thinking about flashy moves, all they really needed to do was surrender themselves to their inborn instincts. Don't think, act. Don't predict, react. Fight. Protect. Win.

That was right. His feelings for Eva were his key to becoming a legend.

Without her, he could not focus. And if he could not focus, his performance would merely devolve into nothing but average brawling. Not bad for small fry, but never on a level worthy of opposing the final boss. If worse came to worst, Nox would merely cast him aside as a mere toy and that would be the end of his debut as a legend.

Not to mention that the story's quality would take a hit as well. It was one thing if the knight saved his beloved princess, but entirely another if neither princess nor knight much cared for the other. One was a story of love, compassion and tragedy. The other was just about some strong dude performing his duty. It would never do. He frowned.

So, to sum it up: He could not construct the foundation for a legendary story since his acquired puzzle pieces were incompatible with each other. He could not match "love" with "Amalia" yet needed "Amalia" because knights needed princesses. He could match "love" with "Evangelyne" yet couldn't replace "Evangelyne" with "Amalia" for the very same reason.

He crossed his arms in front of his chest and nodded in an acknowledging manner.

He saw how it was. Namely…

he had fucked up. Big time.

He trampled over his drawings in anger and frustration, cursing it all to hell. Coming so far only to fail so critically in front of the finish line. Typical. Letting his shoulders slouch, he could do little but sigh in defeat.

There was no way to salvage this…

…or was there?

He blinked in surprise as a certain thought entered his mind. Before he knew it, he regained his vigor and began looking around for a certain companion of his. He needed some advice.

They were currently stocking up on supplies in a small harbor village. It had been the last one before they would reach the portal leading to the kingdom of Sadida. Well, it was probably more accurate to say that everyone else was stocking up while he was waiting for them to finish. But that wasn't really important right now. What _was_ important was that he got hold of a certain Enutrof.

After walking around for a few minutes, he eventually spotted the old man trying to get some kamas out of selling Scribble, the annoying demon map that would rather trick its user than show them the way. However, despite his expertise in haggling and turning worthless things into precious money, his latest victim eventually bailed on him once he noticed the demon's foul character and decided that it was best to have nothing to do with it.

Frowning at the leaving man, Ruel merely raised a fist accusingly and yelled after him: "You would pass on the bargain of the century? Such a deal only comes once in a lifetime!" When the man didn't even turn around to face him anymore, Ruel could do little but wave him off. "Bah, whatever. I will find a fool willing to buy this useless map eventually. Just you see."

"Ruel." Percedal greeted the man with a raised hand and a big grin. "Just the man I was looking for!"

"You were looking for me?" The old Enutrof asked him with a raised brow, eying him suspiciously. "If it's about kamas, I have none, just so you know."

"I don't need your money, Ruel. I just came for advice." Dally tried reassuring the man, still grinning.

This visibly pleased Ruel who immediately dropped his suspicious look for a proud smile as he folded his arms in front of his chest. "Ah, so you came to listen to the wisdom of the great Ruel. You have come to the right place then, my boy. Normally my council would cost you a few kamas, but since I know you have nothing to gi-er, I mean since we are such good friends, I will make an exception." He put an arm around Dally's shoulders and asked him with a grin: "What can I do for you, bud?"

"You need to tell me how to make princesses." He asked him with a straight face. Ruel's eyes opened up wide as he regarded the redhead in confusion.

"Make princesses…" The white-haired man scratched the back of his head and you could almost hear the gears in his head turning from him trying to decrypt the meaning of the young Iop's question. His eyes wandered down to the ShuShu sword hanging at Dally's waist in hope of getting some help from there, but the halfway narrowed down eye of Rubilax merely stared back at him as if to say: "Don't look at me. I am as clueless as you are."

"Yes. I need to find a way to make Evangelyne a princess. It is of utmost importance. Please tell me how I can do that." Percedal explained to him with a confident smirk, visibly proud of his genius idea of a solution. See, if he loved Eva but Eva wasn't a princess, all he needed to do was make her one. Simple, right? Right. All he was missing was the how. He figured throwing a dress over her and ask Amalia if she had a spare crown lying around might do the trick, but it never hurt to ask someone with more experience.

As he listened to Dally's explanation, stroking his bearded chin, Ruel noticed a certain blonde Cra turning the corner with a big bag of supplies in her arms. However, as she overheard her name and the topic it was used in, she had suddenly decided to retreat hastily back around the corner, hiding out of sight. This had all happened in the blink of a moment and she probably thought she hadn't been noticed. However, the oh-so brilliant Cra hadn't taken into account that her long ears were sticking out behind the corner of the building she was hiding behind of, effectively giving her away. The Enutrof smirked knowingly, but gave himself oblivious.

"Oh, so that's what it was. I see, I see. But why a princess?" Ruel asked him, trying to understand where this was coming from.

"Explementary, my dear Ruel." Dally started with a confident grin and a raised finger as if to explain. Ruel merely narrowed his eyes on him, but didn't bother to tell him that he had likely meant to say "Elementary."

"As you surely know, I am an honorable knight. And as a knight, I naturally need a beautiful princess at my side."

"So?" Ruel asked him with a raised brow. "Go find one, then."

Dally, however, just eyed him annoyedly. "Don't be stupid, Ruel. Princesses don't lie on the side of the road like apples next to a tree. I would know, I have looked there already." His white-haired friend merely gave him an unimpressed "Aha." in response.

"Besides, I do not need to look, for I have already found the perfect one. I know your eyes might be old and next to blind, but even you should be able to see that you would never find a lovelier woman than Evangelyne." He told him with eyes sparkling with admiration. Throwing a quick glance behind him, Ruel spotted the Cra's ear twitching excitedly, its tip turning red. He chuckled to himself. To have a bit of fun, he replied in an unimpressed fashion:

"By Evangelyne, do you speak of ours, by chance? The one you would be able to mistake for a dragon if you were to close an eye? And you call _me_ blind. Heh." Knowing that Eva would not risk leaving her spot to expose herself, Ruel thought himself to be fairly safe to leave such a remark. However, he heard the distinct sound of something hitting wood, probably caused by her kicking the house they were standing next to. From one moment to the next, the snow resting on the house's roof slid off and right on top of him, covering him from head to toe. Eying Dally with annoyance, he added a sarcastic:

"Very lovely, indeed."

Oblivious to any of this, Dally merely chose to nod agreeingly: "I knew you would understand. So tell me, what do I need to do?"

"I am afraid there is nothing to be done, boy. You either are born a princess or you are not. There are rare cases of kings adopting kids and lifting them up into royalty afterwards, but…"

"Ah, so I will have to ask the king of Sadida. I wonder if he would help me…" Dally thought out aloud while holding his chin in wonder.

"I doubt it. It's a rare occurrence and usually only done with young kids."

"Hmmm, I see." The young knight nodded understandingly. "Then I suppose I will have to duel him and make him do it when he loses!" He said excitedly, raising a fist confidently. Ruel heard the sound of something hitting wood again. This time it seemed like Eva had hit the back of her head from shock somehow. He could see her shadow painfully clutching her head, rubbing the aching spot. He grinned. That was karma for you.

"Why is any of this necessary, though?" He eventually asked the knight. "If you have already set your eyes on Evangelyne, why does it matter if she is a princess or not?"

"What are you saying, Ruel?" Percedal gave himself confused. "In the stories, the knight always falls in love with a princess."

The Enutrof sighed, shaking his head. "But Dally, those are just stories. There is no universal rule that states a knight has to get himself a princess. In fact, I don't think any princess you could find would be to your liking. Rather than looking for a princess, you should just look for the person that completes you."

The redhead frowned and looked down on himself. Two legs, two hands, five fingers on each hand, no missing teeth. He seemed to be quite complete already. Ruel put his hand on his forehead and shook his head disbelievingly.

"I meant if you were a sword, you should find the sheath that fits you. Doesn't matter if the sheath is made of gold or cheap leather. All it needs to do is fit."

"Hmmm, the one that fits." Dally repeated. "Is it the one that makes you want to always stick close? The one that makes you feel like you could defeat any foe? The one you can't seem to live without?"

Ruel gave him his biggest grin in response as he patted him on the shoulder approvingly. "The very same! I see, you have found the catalyst to awaken your true strength. Good for you, Dally. Trust me, with love on your side, you will be able to do _anything_."

The knight, however, could only tilt his head questioningly. "Cyclist?"

"Ca-ta-lyst." The Enutrof repeated, a bit annoyed. "That's something to use to cause a reaction. In this case: Awakening your true potential."

The Iop put his hands on each side of his waist and laughed heartily. "Ah, I get it. So Eva is my Cratalyst!"

There was silence for a few seconds as Ruel blinked at him a few times as if in disbelief. Even Rubi's eye was wide open from surprise. Eventually Ruel pointed a shaky finger at him.

"Did he just…make a play on words?"

"Impossible." Rubi said. "Must have been a coincidence."

The Enutrof decided to nod, even if not entirely sure about that himself. "Must have."

"Anyway, thanks for the advice, Ruel. You helped a lot." Grinning at the old man, he playfully hit his shoulder and waved him a short goodbye as he turned around to leave. "See you later."

Ruel watched him leave while whistling a happy tune. Apparently, figuring out this whole princess business had managed to solve quite the problem for the young knight. Oh well, Ruel was happy as long as he helped somehow.

He threw a glance at the spot Eva had been hiding in this whole time and saw her now sitting on the ground, the single ear he could see from around the corner twitched happily and was redder than the ripest tomato in all of the world of twelve. He grinned playfully as he approached her.

"Hey, Ms. Cratalyst. How long are you planning to keep sitting here?" He asked her as he turned around the corner to finally spot a completely flustered blonde Cra sitting in the snow and hiding her blushing face behind the beg of supplies she had acquired earlier.

"That was the most embarrassing conversation I have ever had the displeasure of overhearing." She mumbled into the bag. That was until Ruel pushed it aside to reveal her beet-red face. Her cheeks must have flared up so much, the Cra was surprised they weren't emitting steam against the cool air around them.

"If it was so unpleasant, why are your eyes sparkling? And why is there a smile on your lips?"

She pulled up her legs and hid her face behind them once more. "I don't know. Go away." She whined. She couldn't deal with this right now. There was firework going off in her head right now for some reason and she needed time to figure out how to turn it off before she could even attempt to hold a conversation with anyone.

Ruel chuckled as he ruffled her hair playfully. "Now, isn't young love simply adorable?" He laughed and winked at her as he took the bag from her and decided to return to the others ahead of her. "I will tell the others you still had something to look into before we can continue the journey. Take your time."

"…..thanks…" He heard her mumble softly as he was about to leave.

"Don't mention it. I will be rooting for you kids." He waved her goodbye without turning around to face her, hanging the bag onto his shovel and humming a song to himself as he left.

Eva appeared to have watched him leave, yet her mind had been preoccupied with other things. Things of greater importance. Things that made her feel dizzy.

Even after several minutes of trying to sort her confused thoughts, she still never managed to turn off the fireworks.

Eventually she wondered if she really wanted them gone.

"…the one he can't live without…huh…" She couldn't help but mutter to herself absent-mindedly. Her lips involuntarily curled up into a stupefied grin as she couldn't suppress a quiet giggle.

Who would have thought she would ever be the target of such affection?

And who would have ever thought she would eventually end up liking to be one, too?

She sighed dreamily as she looked up into the wide sky as if it held the answers to questions she herself didn't even know she had.

Cra, just what was this Iop of hers doing to her?

She took a fistful of snow into her hand and threw it against her face to cool off her head. She shivered and shook her head to get rid of the snow, then got up and brushed the remaining snow off herself. Her weird action may have served its purpose as she found herself to think more clearly now. With a determined look, she followed up after Ruel.

Her smile, however, never faded.

Following the old man's footsteps, she eventually caught up with him and the rest of the group.

"There you are, Eva. What was it you needed to take care of so urgently?" Amalia asked her with folded arms, clearly not happy she had made them wait.

"Oh, it was nothing. I thought I saw something but I was wrong. Sorry." The blonde Cra excused herself while laughing nervously. She had totally forgotten to think up a good excuse, earning her a suspicious stare from the Sadida princess.

"We are trying to reach home as soon as possible to warn father about Nox and you run off because of nothing?" She asked her with gritted teeth, not recognizing her usually so dutiful bodyguard at all. "And did I miss something? Why does everyone around me seem to be in such a good mood?" She pointed at a smirking Ruel, a still smiling Eva and a grinning Dally who now approached them confidently, Rubilax resting on his shoulder.

"Ah, I see the lovely lady has returned from her errand. Since we are now all here, we should get back on the road. Onwards, friends! Glory awaits!" He swung his sword around flashily and pointed it ahead of them, followed by leading the way. Eva chuckled at his antics and quickly caught up to him, deciding to walk next to him casually with her hands neatly placed behind her back.

"I don't get these two." Amalia eventually admitted with narrowed eyes. "First they stop talking for days on end and now they seem to be inseparable."

"That's the power of love for you." Ruel explained to her happily as they trailed behind their two lovebirds.

"Love?" Amalia burst out in surprise. "Eva? With _him_?" Her expression morphed into one of disgust and disbelief. "You must be joking."

"Think about it. Have you ever seen her smile this much before?" Ruel asked her as he pointed ahead of them, making the young princess shift her attention to the Cra in question.

There she saw her laughing at something stupid Dally had just told her as he had been gesturing widely with his free hand, probably meaning to make her visualize something big. Knowing Percedal, it was likely a monster he had been making up. Amalia could not make out the contents of their conversation, but just imagining it made her frown from its stupidity. Eva never used to be interested in stupid stories of stupid people for stupid people. In fact, Amalia was positive that Eva would just have rolled her eyes at them and brushed them aside.

But there she was, listening eagerly to every word Percedal said to her, smiling and laughing at his grand way of speaking that normally would have made her cringe. Amalia scratched the back of her head confusedly. Ruel was right, something was definitely off here.

A devilish smirk appeared on the princess' lips as she realized what this meant. A certain blonde Cra was about to be interrogated as soon as they were to return home and have a quiet girls-only moment between themselves. Her dear childhood friend could not honestly believe she would be getting off the hook that easily now, could she?

The young princess was so eager to tease her friend, in fact, that her evil chuckle could be registered by the Cra's sharp ears who immediately turned around only to see the green haired demon smirking right back at her. Tensing up on the spot, Eva could do little but turn around again and face forward with a dreadful expression. She knew exactly what awaited her.

She was not looking forward to it at all.


	3. Lone Beauty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, back again. My shipping thrusters are running on overdrive! Ahahaha.
> 
> This chapter has the biggest canon divergence yet and therefore might seem weird to some of you. You will see once you read it.
> 
> I have wanted to write a scene with Eva talking to a small version of herself like Percedal did when he went into exile and straight into the desert, so that's where the small conscience she talks to came from.

* * *

**Lone Beauty**

Idiot! Moron! Iop brain!

Curses like these filled her mind as she punched the poor, unfortunate pillow resting on her bed.

Evangelyne was in her room in the royal castle of Sadida. Specifically sitting on her bed and torturing an innocent cloth body filled with tofu feathers meant to offer its owner some rest and comfort.

Not like the blonde Cra would have any of that right now!

She was quite furious, in case you couldn't tell from just looking. The reason? An utterly broken bow. Its many pieces carefully having been collected and brought here where they now rested on the table in the middle of the room.

And as if it hadn't been bad enough to have suffered this incredible humiliation, there now had to be another thorn in her eye present in her room in the form of a little glowing spirit that looked like her, albeit a lot smaller.

The little Cra called herself her conscience, yet for a conscience she kept talking a whole lot of bull. But every time Eva tried to grab that bothersome thing and throw it out of the window, the little thing would just reappear in her room again with a poof.

It was downright infuriating!

" _Calm down, it's not that bad."_ The little one said, sitting next to her on the bed and taking a sip of tea from an even smaller teacup.

"Not that bad? Have you looked at the current situation recently?" Eva growled at her.

Another sip. _"I have. It's not as big of a deal as you make it appear to be."_

"Excuse me?" Eva looked at her smaller version in utter disbelief. "Have you, perhaps, seen what exactly lies on the table over there?" She pointed at the fragments of what once used to be her bow.

" _It's just a bow."_ The little Eva merely replied, clearly unimpressed as she shrugged the matter off.

"Just a-" Gritting her teeth in fury, her taller counterpart grabbed her so called conscience by the back of her collar and lifted her up like a kitten, hissing: "How _dare_ you. For a Cra to lose her bow is-"

Mini-Eva sighed, followed by impersonating the deep and rough voice of an older man. _"I know, I know. A disgrace. An affront to the goddess. Sacrilege!"_ She shrugged once more. _"Never thought you would be dumb enough to buy into the stupid propaganda of your instructors."_

Shocked about those words, Eva let her smaller doppelganger go. "What do you mean?"

As Mini-Eva fell, she corrected her stance mid-fall to roll off of the bed as she landed, performing a few backflips only to land on her own two feet. Hoooh, her smaller clone may have looked a bit awkward and clumsy, but apparently, she was just as athletic as the real deal was. Anyway, putting her left hand on her hip and pointing her right index finger up at Eva, she said:

" _Come on, Eva. You know how the military is. They will do anything to train their recruits into fierce soldiers. Of course they would teach you to form a deep bond with your weapon as a replacement for real interpersonal relationships. 'This is my bow, there are many like it but this one is mine.' Puh-lease."_ Her smaller clone folded her arms in front of her chest and rolled her eyes with a smug grin.

"But…my connection to the goddess…" Eva tried to object as she lowered her gaze in sadness but got interrupted by her conscience.

" _Is important, no doubt. But do you_ really _think she would care? She hasn't graced the mortal realm with her presence in eons. Heck if I knew what gods do all day, but I doubt she has so little to do that she would care enough about one Cra losing her bow to come down here and smite you for it. I mean, if it really was such a big deal, don't you think she would have revoked the blessings she has bestowed upon you by now?"_

Eva eyed her small doppelganger critically. She wanted to refute her, but had to admit that she made a good point. She couldn't go and try to throw energy arrows around without a bow for obvious reasons, but she could still clearly feel the connection she shared with her goddess. It may have been harder to notice without her bow, but it was still clearly there. That was, however, the moment Eva realized why that might be the case.

Looking down in a way that let her hair obstruct her eyes from view, she quietly stated: "Perhaps that's because she is giving me the chance to restore my honor."

" _By doing what?"_ The little Cra on her bed asked her with a raised brow.

The real Eva didn't respond for quite a while, looking over at the remains of her broken bow. The teachings said there was only one way for a Cra to restore their honor after getting their bow destroyed.

By killing the one who had destroyed it in the first place.

That meant she would have to kill…Percedal.

Eva took hold of her left arm, finger nails digging into her skin as she clutched it angrily. She bit on her lip so hard, it almost drew blood, visibly torn about what to do.

She had always honored the teachings, had lived her life in accordance to the commandments of Lady Cra. She had always respected and looked up to her goddess, yet following this rule…

It felt as if it was too much asked off her.

And yet, what choice did she have? She was a Cra, after all.

"I will have to settle the score…with Percedal." She eventually said, almost mechanically, as if she had forced herself to utter them.

" _By killing him?"_

Eva did not respond, still letting her head hang, all she offered her conscience was a small nod.

That was the moment Mini-Eva disappeared in a poof to reappear on the edge of the table with the broken bow pieces. Leaning back on her hands, she crossed her legs and smirked at Eva cockily.

" _Liar."_

"What did you call me?" Eva looked down on her conscience coldly. Was this annoying thing thinking this was a freaking game to her?

However, the clone gave herself unimpressed, merely leaning forward and letting her head rest on her hand casually, she replied with an amused smirk: _"You heard me. Why don't we stop with this farce and get down to the real problem, huh? Or do I have to remind you what happened in that dream of yours when you visited the tree of life today? Didn't look to me as if you were trying to kill Dally in it, no?"_

Eva flinched involuntarily as she was forced to recall the contents of said dream. Feeling the blood rush to her cheeks in utter shame made the smirk of her smaller clone widen even more. This, in turn infuriated Eva and she threw the nearest object at her in hopes of erasing that smug face from existence. Said object ended to be a hair brush which merely flew through the smirking conscience as the small individual disappeared with yet another poof to reappear on the bigger Cra's head.

Lying down on her belly, she leaned over Eva's forehead and let her head hang down to be in view of the real Cra, waving at her casually.

" _Instead of going on and on about this bow you obviously didn't care as much about as you lead people on to believe, shall we instead finally start talking about the real reason you are so upset with Dally?"_

"Him being an insensitive jerk?" Eva asked her as she tried to squash the little one between her palms like exterminating an annoying mosquito.

Again Mini-Eva disappeared from view to reappear in front of Eva, pointing at her own forehead with an annoyed expression.

" _Sheesh, sometimes I wonder which one of you two is the real Iop brain here…"_

"Alright, you know what? Fine. I'll bite." Evangelyne, visibly frustrated with this pointless bickering with herself, eventually chose to give up and play along. Looking down on her conscience with folded arms, she asked. "What, according to you, is the real problem here?"

The small Eva sighed in relief, visibly happy things were finally moving forward here. Smiling at the real Eva, she merely replied:

" _Simple. You miss him."_

"Haaah?" Clearly annoyed, Eva merely looked at her conscience as if she had just heard a very bad joke.

" _Am I wrong?"_ Mini-Eva asked with a confident shrug. _"You are not mad at him for having destroyed your bow. You are mad at him for having run away without you."_

"Ridiculous!" The blonde Cra claimed arrogantly as she looked away with closed eyes, deeming that argument not even worthy of her attention. "Why would it bother me if that guy ran off all by himself? I am an independent Cra and perfectly able to live my life on my own. I don't need someone to take care of me."

" _Yeah, yeah. It's been like this for years now and don't get me wrong, it's good to be able to be self-sufficient. But tell me, wasn't it boring?"_

This caught Eva off-guard. Boring? Who cared if it was boring? Boredom couldn't kill you.

She frowned. Though it wasn't pleasant, either, she would give her conscience that. Compared to the mundane days of her stupidly performing her duty day in, day out, her adventures with Yugo, Dally, Amalia and Ruel had been quite more fulfilling, even if they were a whole lot more exhausting than her usual routine had ever been.

This had been especially true during the last passing days. She had noticed how quickly the days were passing now due to all the fun she had in the presence of Dally. Some way or another, he always made her smile.

She frowned sadly.

Except for when he didn't, crushing her bow and making her cry. He might as well have ripped out her heart and crushed it to dust with these giant demonified Iop hands of his.

But thinking back on it now, while yes, it had been hard on her to see her bow broken apart by the man she loved, perhaps the thing that was even worse to witness was…

The pain in his eyes once he had realized what he had done.

So many hours had she spent looking into these gorgeous eyes of his, always radiating with optimism, pride, joy and love. Sometimes there was sadness or anger to be seen in them as well, but never before had she seen so much hurt. So much regret.

So much shame.

It had drained all the beauty off them, all the life that was usually shining so vibrantly in them. And then, with a pained scream that made her eyes tear up just from remembering it, he had leapt away.

Percedal. The one that would sooner die than run away from even the greatest foe. The Iop that would sooner face a dragon ten times his size head on than turn tails and flee. The man that never faltered. Never feared.

He had run away.

Even now she could not fully comprehend that fact alone. In all the time she had spent with Dally, she had come to realize that there were certain traits about him that would never change, no matter how stupid they might have been. One of these traits was his childish sense of honor that forbade him from retreating. He simply could not shoulder the shame of doing so.

So, if he willingly chose to bear the shame of running away from battle, that could only mean that staying would have been even more shameful for him…but that made no sense…!

She put her hand on her head as she tried making sense of the whirlwind of thoughts flying around in there. Think, Eva, what could have ashamed him more than cowardice?

Her conscience gradually floated back into view with a sad expression.

" _You want to understand an Iop? Think like an Iop. Dally wants to be a hero. A knight in shining armor. What would be the biggest shame for any hero?"_

Her eyes moved around frantically as she looked inside her mind for an answer. After a short while, her eyes opened up wide in realization. She gasped as she looked at the small image of herself for confirmation

"The greatest shame of any hero…is to see yourself become the villain!"

The smaller version of her nodded with a sad smile. _"Heroes don't make girls cry. Especially not ones they love."_

Suddenly it all made sense in her head. "Not to mention the bounty Armand has put on his head. They are hunting him like any common criminal…" This would give that good-hearted idiot of a man the rest. She knew him. He would never recover from all this disgrace.

A shocking thought came to her. No, she refused to believe it. As if in denial, she faced the little glowing Cra in the room once more, eyes sparkling in desperation.

"Hey, but that's fine, right? He will come back and then we can just explain to him that it's not that bad. I will punch him a few times, make him bow his head in front of Prince Armand and then it's all back to how it was, no?" The last of her hopes started to shatter apart when she saw her conscience not responding at all.

She hastily pulled out a blue feather from her pocket and held it in front of her with a nervous smile, hand shaking.

"We are in the Brotherhood of the Tofu. It's an unbreakable connection! He will come back to us. To me! Right?"

Her conscience lowered her gaze.

"Why are you not responding!" Eva suddenly yelled at her conscience in panic, demanding her to ease up her worries over her crawling suspicion. However, all she got in return was the miniature version's sad look as she shook her head slowly.

" _He is not coming back, Eva."_

The blonde's eyes widened at those words. Tears started to form.

No…

It couldn't be!

He wouldn't leave her like this. He wouldn't dare!

Anger now defined her facial features once more.

Just who did that Iop brain think he was, forcing his way into her heart, then thinking he could leave without a word?

She spun around and grabbed a bag, hastily throwing in every bit of food she currently held in her room, including an empty canteen, then threw open the doors of her cabinet and hastily grabbed a few spare clothes to shove into the bag as well.

That darn fool. Running away on her? She would show him.

She went over to the table holding the pieces of her bow and hastily collected them into a piece of cloth to carry with her.

He thought he could leave her behind? Over her dead body. She would chase this fool to the end of the world of twelve if she had to, break his legs, then drag him all the way back here.

For what kind of Cra did this Iop take her? Don't joke with her! He made her fall in love, he better took responsibility! His ass was hers now and she would kick it as many times as she needed to get that fact into that tiny, stupid brain of his.

She wiped away the tears in her eyes as she stormed out of her room.

Don't make her cry any more tears for you, idiot!

It wasn't even five minutes later that King Oakheart Sheran Sharm heard a series of short, yet strong knocks on his door. When called in, his chancellor timidly told him:

"Your majesty, pardon the intrusion, but Lady Evangelyne firmly requests an audience with you. Apologies, but I could not send her away."

"Evangelyne?" The king asked out aloud, finding it highly curious that the blonde girl would go as far as _request_ for something. Normally it would be Amalia asking in behalf of her. How odd. "Send her in."

He had barely even finished speaking when Evangelyne pushed the door open and hastily strode forward. If the king didn't know any better, he would think she almost forced herself not to run outright. Before he knew it, she was already kneeling in front of him, lowering her head as deep as she could.

"Your highness, I must apologize for my insolence but I deeply implore you to repair my bow. It is of utmost importance to me to see it restored and I can ask no one but you to do it."

"Ah, Evangelyne. Amalia has told me about what has happened while I was asleep. It deeply saddened me to hear about your bow. Naturally I shall restore it to you, although I had hoped it could wait until tomorrow. I am still a bit drowsy from all this dreaming you see." He tried to tell her with a short laugh. Eva's voice, however, remained desperate.

"I understand and it pains me deeply to do this, but I need my bow as soon as possible. I cannot afford to waste a single minute. If you could bring it upon your heart, could you please fix it now? I do not care if it is sloppily done. All it needs to do is be able to shoot arrows. Please, your majesty!"

The king hummed thoughtfully, grooming his beard curiously. "I have never seen you this shaken before. Did something happen?"

"Yes, but it is nothing I would dare trouble his majesty with." She told him, still facing the ground.

"Please, lift your head, Evangelyne." The king told her with a kind voice as he reached out to her. Roots began growing out of the ground before her and gently pushed up her face to make her look up to him where he could see her glittering eyes, tears begging to be freed, yet firmly held prisoner.

Seeing how serious the matter was, the king immediately sported a serious expression as well. With no further delay, he pointed a hand on the piece of cloth Eva had presented to him, undoubtedly carrying the shards of what once used to be her precious bow. Relief and gratefulness immediately shone in the Cra's eyes once she saw the various pieces being enshrouded in a green, soft light and gradually mended back together.

"Tell me, what is troubling you?" The king asked as he restored the bow to its former glory.

Eva sadly lowered her gaze again. "I was being foolish. A person who is very precious to me has left me and it took me this long to realize he was not coming back." She shook her head fiercely. "However, I can't just let him go. I need to go after him and bring him back to his senses. Make him understand that his place is nowhere but by my side. He may be a stupid fool, but he still is _my_ fool, you see?" She offered him a weak smile as she held out her hands to receive the mended bow that was now slowly returning back into her possession. She immediately noticed how it had changed. It was now bigger and surrounded in an even stronger magical aura. It must have been infused with part of the king's power himself, she realized.

She gasped. This bow. It was beyond beautiful. Even better than her old one, this one was simply…perfect.

"I…I don't know what to say, my king. This bow, it is…" She stammered until she finally caught her composure once more and bowed her head with dignity. "I thank you, your majesty. From the bottom of my heart. I will treasure this bow until the end of my days."

But then the king merely laughed in response. "That old thing? I hope not. When you come back, I shall construct you a real bow. This was just a temporary solution since you are obviously in a rush."

"I appreciate your thoughtfulness."

"Don't lower your head in front of me anymore, Eva. You have served my family for so long, I will feel bad if you won't feel at least a bit at home here."

"I-I could never dare…!" Eva was about to politely object when she was interrupted by yet another hearty laugh.

"Nonsense! I will have it no other way! But tell me, Eva. That person you are about to chase. Was it that Iop that broke your bow in the first place?"

"The very same, my king." The blonde Cra replied somewhat embarrassedly.

"Hoooh, how truly novel. A Cra that can forgive even the destruction of her bow."

"A bow is just a bow in the end. If it's broken, it can be fixed." She held out her bow as if to prove her point. "My heart, however, I will never allow him to break."

"And neither shall I!" King Oakheart agreed with a big grin. "I am very interested in this Iop that managed to steal your heart, Evangelyne. See to it that you bring him back with you. I would like to get to know him for myself."

Eva immediately stood up straight and saluted earnestly. "I swear it upon Lady Cra that I shall succeed in bringing back that Iop of mine even if it is the last thing I do!"

"Good response!" The king praised her, visibly pleased. "Now go! May Sadida be with you!"

Offering him a quick bow as farewells, she quickly turned around to leave. However, just a short while after she had exited the throne room, Armand got in her way, clearly having overheard her conversation with the king. Not agreeing with the direction this was going, he appeared intent on getting in her way with a bunch of Sadida soldiers behind him to enforce his wish by force if necessary.

"I am afraid I must object, my dear Evangelyne." He told her coldly, earning him a harsh look of the Cra in return.

"This matter does not concern you, my Prince. Please step aside." She tried to be as civil as humanely possible.

"We are about to go to war with Nox' forces and you think leaving the kingdom is a good idea?"

"Surely the kingdom of Sadida is strong enough that they can afford expending a single Cra to go on her personal mission."

He laughed arrogantly. "Certainly it is, but isn't it your duty to protect my sister? You are her bodyguard, are you not? Can you say with confidence that no harm will befall her while you run off chasing criminals?" He sent her a cold look which she countered with a fierce one of herself.

"It would appear you are gravely underestimating the princess' capability to look after herself. Something that would not have happened, had you tried to pay attention to her growth every once in a while, instead of focusing your eyes on this mere bodyguard."

Anger was now clearly flashing up in his eyes. "Be that as it may, as your prince, I am your commanding officer and I hereby forbid you from leaving your post!"

"I have every right to request a leave after all these years I have served without even a single day off." She shot back equally as angry.

"Which I still have to approve first. I do not."

"Fine then." She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "Then expect my letter of resignation by tomorrow morning."

"You must be joking." The prince chuckled, believing her to be bluffing. "Receiving a dishonorable discharge will bar you from ever joining the military again. You would be an outcast among your own people."

She leaned forward determinedly and pointed her thumb at herself.

"Watch. Me. Care. Now step aside! I am done with your games!"

"How about I simply arrest you for trying to desert from the coming battle?" The guards behind him readied themselves for combat, making her jump back and draw her own bow in response. Aiming an energy arrow at the prince's head, she calmly said:

"Don't force me to do this, Prince Armand. Step aside, or else…"

The Prince, however, was not in the least bit fazed. Even with an arrow directly pointing at his head, he just calmly stated: "I would think calmly if I was you, Evangelyne. Are you truly ready to commit high treason for the sake of one single Iop knight?"

She narrowed her eyes on him, coldly. Never had she been more sure in her entire life. "If that is what it takes…"

Luckily for her, she never had to actually let go of her arrow as from out of nowhere, a giant vine grew out of the ground and pushed Armand and his soldiers against the nearest wall, effectively immobilizing them.

Surprised by this, Evangeline turned around to spot a certain green-haired princess kneeling not far behind her, hands on the ground as she channeled her magic into it.

"What is the meaning of this!? Amalia! Unhand me at once!" Armand shouted angrily as he tried freeing himself from his restraints. To no avail.

"Amalia!" Eva yelled in shock and was about to go to her side, when the princess merely shouted under what seemed to be enormous strain:

"Eva, I have no idea what is going on here but you better go while I can still hold them off. You better explain yourself once you return, you hear me?"

"Amie…" Eva couldn't help but mutter her best friend's name in amazement, followed by quickly gathering her wits once more. Nodding determinedly at her, she took out the blue tofu feather and promised: "Thank you, Amie! Don't worry, I will definitely come back!"

"I know! Now go!" She urged her. She didn't have to tell Eva twice! From one second to the next, the agile Cra was already sprinting down the hallway, gone from sight in a matter of seconds. She practically flew over the stairs of the palace, jumping over gaps where others would have normally used the plantlike elevators. There was no obstacle that could stop her. No one she would allow to get in her way. She had a mission and she would see it done. One way or another.

Eventually she reached the stables, quickly choosing the dragosteed that seemed to be most fit, saddled it and loaded her baggage onto it. She wasted no additional time and took its reins, leading it out of the stables. Mounting it quickly, she blasted off into the distance without ever turning back.

As her steed ran though the city, Evangelyne took a quick look at her compass to determine the approximate direction Dally had jumped into. If she was lucky and he had walked into more or less the same direction, which she assumed he had, she would be able to catch up to him in one day, maybe one and a half. She hoped she would spot his trail by then, or it would become significantly harder to track that big idiot down.

She was about to approach the border of the city when something suddenly overtook her, leaving a trail of dust behind that clouded her vision. She coughed and was forced to slow down her ride in fear of making it maneuver into an obstacle due to the lack of sight. When the dust settled, she was quite shocked to see Armand blocking her way once more, sitting on his very own royally decorated Dragosteed.

"Armand!" She yelled angrily at him. "Why don't you quit already! I have no intention of returning!"

To her surprise, Armand made no signs of trying to stop her again. Looking down in what seemed to be sadness and resignation, he slowly unmounted his steed, holding its reins in his hand.

"I am aware of that, Evangelyne. You will never catch up to that beast of yours on that slow steed. I will lend you mine." He petted the faithful animal's snout proudly. "I have raised it since I was but a child. You will find no faster mount anywhere in this kingdom, I bet."

Taken aback by this, Eva couldn't help but ask: "Why all of a sudden?"

The prince sighed deeply. "I wouldn't be a man if I wouldn't fight for what's important to me with all that I've got. Still, a loss is a loss and I will have to accept that. Despite all that, I wouldn't want us to part on bad terms. I hope this will help to better your image of me, even if just a little." He smiled at her kindly as he led his mount towards her.

Hearing all this made Eva relax somewhat. Albeit still a bit wary, she eventually got down from her own ride and took the reins from Armand as he handed them to her. He then helped her carrying over her equipment and fastened it to her new Dragosteed.

"Thank you, Prince Armand." She offered him an appreciative bow, which was merely waved off by him, never having felt the need to see her bow before him.

"That Iop of yours is truly a lucky man, Eva. I do not know how he managed to win your heart, but I salute to him nonetheless. Please do send him my regards once you find him." He told her as he stood tall, hands folded behind his back. Even in defeat, the aura of royalty had never left him, it seemed.

"I will." She nodded respectfully as she turned the steed around, ready to depart.

"I would have never made you cry as he did, you know that, yes?" She heard him say to her.

Turning around halfway to face him, she told him: "I am inclined to believe that, Prince Armand. But neither have you ever made me smile." She faced forward again without awaiting his response. "Goodbye."

And just like that, she gave her steed the command to advance. She was out of sight in a matter of seconds.

"I see." Armand said and chuckled to himself. "So this is where I failed." He took hold of the reins of the Dragosteed Eva left behind and was about to lead it back to the castle stables when the animal suddenly licked his face out of nowhere. He blinked at it in surprise, then laughed heartily.

"Am I that miserable that you felt the need to console me? Now aren't you a good girl, hm?" He petted the animal's snout, much to its delight.

"Let's go home, shall we? We two who have been left behind."

He mounted the steed and got an approving sound in response.

The ride back was a quiet and tranquil one, the evening air cool and soothing to breathe in. It was evenings like these he tended to enjoy the most. They offered a calming and relaxing atmosphere to be in.

He sighed.

If only his heart would act accordingly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo! And another one done. Yeah, I've decided to give Eva a slightly more proactive approach at reuniting with Percedal. While I can see some people thinking it to be a bit too much, I still regret nothing. I intend to go all-out on this pairing, so you better brace yourself for full-on shipping or flee the ship before it is to late.
> 
> I am a madman on a mission and nobody will stop me, ahahahaha.
> 
> Next chapter will directly tie into this one, which should be more of an exception than the norm. Still, I am excited and can't wait to write it. No idea if my ideas are even remotely possible according to the rules of the Wakfu universe, but what did Eva just say to Armand? That's right:
> 
> Watch. Me. Care.
> 
> Next up: "Disgraced Beast" - Hope you will be looking forward to it! I know I do!


	4. Disgraced Beast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, the chapter you've been waiting for (or so I tell myself at least) is finally here!
> 
> Writing it was a blast, but it took some time because it's the longest one yet (It pretty much doubles the size of this fic so far.) and I tried really hard to make it feel right. Lots of new stuff in here that didn't actually happen in the animation, which should make reading it more interesting since it's more than just a rewritten scene. I hope you guys will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

**Disgraced Beast**

…What had he done…?

How could this have happened?

All he had wanted to do was show those arrogant Saladheads that he was not to be taken lightly.

And didn’t they all have fun in the end…?

After all, wasn’t trading fist blows nothing more but a firm handshake between men? It had never been supposed to escalate…

But then this Armand dude had had to show up…and suddenly it wasn’t about having fun anymore. That guy had never sought to have a fair and honorable fight, no. All he had wanted from the start was to make a fool out of him, belittle him! In front of Evangelyne no less!

He clenched his fist in utter anger.

It had just gotten him so mad…!

Who the hell had that guy thought he was, holding her hands, getting so close? So what if he was some kinda prince, sitting on some fancy throne? That gave him no right to do whatever the hell he pleased now, did it? And then he had stepped into the arena, Dally’s domain, and had honestly expected to walk all over him, too?

Had he thought Dally was some kind of personal fool, serving as his majesty’s entertainer? Had he _really_ believed he would allow himself to be tossed around and played with in front of his girl? To let her see his pathetic side? No, Armand had wanted to show her that he had been the better choice between them. Percedal would prove him wrong.

He looked down in shame.

Or at least that had been the intention. In the end, it had turned out that he really hadn’t been a match for the prince. Not if he tried to remain honorable and fought with his fists only where Armand held nothing back.

And so he had forsaken honor, making the mistake to think that if his opponent fought dirty, so could he…

Nothing short of a devil’s bargain.

He had thought he had been ready. That he could control Rubilax. He shook his head weakly.

He had been such a fool.

All his anger, all his hatred, every negative emotion he held towards Armand had only served as fuel for the demon he had allowed himself to merge with.

And Rubilax? He had upheld that which he had promised. Aye, he and Dally would end up teaching that smugface a valuable lesson or two about Iopish strength.

Yet the demon had never promised he would help him do so without causing some collateral damage while they were at it…

Dally looked down on his hands guiltily. The hands that had struck out at innocents, harmed his friends. Evangelyne…

He closed his eyes and held back his tears of regret. Never would he be able to erase from his mind that heartbroken look on her face as she had knelt over the remains of her sacred bow. Something he had selfishly destroyed in his blind rage. The greatest humiliation to a Cra, caused by no one else but himself. He felt like throwing up from how disgusted he was with himself.

Just where had he gone wrong? When had he started losing sight of himself? He had primarily started to fight against Armand to defend his and Eva’s honor, had wanted to prove to Armand that her faith in him had not been misplaced, that he had, indeed, been worthy to stand at her side.

But what had he done instead?

He had taken that faith, her trust in him, and spit on it. Not only had he forsaken his own honor when he had chosen to give into his rage…he had also disgraced Eva by destroying that which was most sacred to a Cra. And for what? His stupid pride? His selfish desire to show off his worth?

Pathetic.

The Sadida kingdom was hunting him like a criminal now. As they should, for he was nothing short of one. He deserved every jeer and every insult they would throw at him. After all, what was a knight without honor but a mere thug out for trouble?

“Hey, bud, come on, what’s the long face for? We showed that lettuce head who is boss, didn’t we? Cheer up, will ya? Wasn’t it fun?” Rubilax’ voice reached his ears, lying not far from him on the ground.

He got up and grabbed the sword angrily. “But at what cost, Rubi? Why did you have to go that far? Because of you, I hurt my friends! Because of you, I hurt Evangelyne!” He slammed the demon against the nearest rock accusingly, much to the sword’s displeasure.

“Hey, if I remember correctly it was you who asked for power, wasn’t it? And didn’t I give you just that? Is it my fault you couldn’t handle it?” Rubi defended himself as he endured the strikes against the stone. In the end, he was still a Shushu. Chaos and destruction would always be his forte.

Eventually Dally lowered the blade again, realizing that, despite everything, Rubilax was still right. He could take the easy way out and blame it all on the demon but in the end, nobody had forced him to tap into Rubi’s demonic power. Dally himself had freed him for his own selfish reasons. And then he had lost control due to overestimating his own power over Rubilax.

Right, if anyone was truly at fault here it would be him. He raised the blade once more to look the demon into the eye with a resigned expression.

“You are right, Rubi.” He offered him a weak smile. “You were right all along.”

“I know. I am always right.” The demon responded proudly, but then blinked at him confusedly. “With what, though?”

That’s when Dally used the blade as a replacement for a spade and started digging a hole in front of him, much to the Shushu’s annoyance. This was _not_ his intended use, mind you.

“You never failed to remind me of my shortcomings. For every day, ever since we had embarked on our journey, you have made it clear that I would never become a hero. I had been too stubborn to accept it back then. I was sure I would prove you wrong one day, but not anymore.”

“Hey, hold on. What kind of crap are you spouting here? What’s the hole for? Hey!”

“That’s it, Rubi. You win.” He told the demon as he put the sword into the hole he had just dug, looking down on it for one last time. “I never had what it takes to be a Shushu guardian. I never had what it takes to become…a hero.” He closed his eyes in defeat as he slowly began closing the hole up again, burying the sword in the process.

“You can’t do this, Percedal! Don’t you dare leave me here in the dirt! You are my guardian! You have an obligation to keep watch over me!”

“I am not worthy of that title anymore. But don’t worry, Rubi. One day, someone who is will come and find you. And then they can be the proper guardian for you I never was.” He turned around and stepped away from the burial site.

“Come on! It wasn’t all bad! We had fun together, didn’t we? Don’t throw it all away due to one setback. Damnit, it was you who freed me, remember? It was not my fault! Get me out of here!” Rubilax’ voice could still be heard from underground, sounding slightly desperate to not be left behind.

Dally ignored him as he stepped forward and faced the desert spreading out before him. A desolate place, devoid of everything, be it life or structures. Nothing but endless wastelands wherever you went. A fitting place for a disgrace such as himself. He would find no battles there. No glory. No honor. Once he went there, his chances of ever becoming a legend would be reduced to zero. If he survived its harshness, he would grow old alone, leading an uneventful life and eventually perish of old age, weak and broken. Unknown, unimportant and unmissed. He nodded.

Yes, this should be his final destination. His time of epic adventuring, his quest to finally enter the legend…

It ended here.

Someone like him had no right to walk among legends, to have his name sung and praised by bards for centuries to come.

He who hurt friends, who made women cry…

…shall forever walk the path of repentance and solitude.

Whipped by the sun’s relentless heat by day, left to the cold embrace of death by night. With nothing to keep him company but the voices of madness and guilt gnawing away on his sanity until that, too, shall be gone, alongside his missing honor. Such shall be his fate, for this was what he deserved.

He stepped out of his boots, suddenly feeling as if they had grown far too large to walk in them anymore. As he neatly placed them at his side, he silently wondered if they hadn’t produced bigger footsteps than he had ever been able to fill all along.

The weight of his surcoat felt oppressing, the responsibility it bore suddenly feeling way too heavy to be carried on his shoulders any longer. Feeling unworthy of still bearing the crest of the holy order of Shushu knights on his chest, he did the only thing that felt right to him at the moment and tore it apart.

A blue Tofu feather came forth from that action, which he caught as it slowly glided into his hand. A reminder of the friends he was about to leave behind. The Brotherhood of the Tofu. A group of friends who had been kind enough to call him a brother. A comrade. Joining it had, perhaps, been the only thing in his entire time as an adventurer he felt he had truly done right.

His time in the Brotherhood had been the most fun he had ever had. And even more so, he had thought he had finally found a place where he might have belonged. No longer a lone wanderer, forced to seek his place in the world all by himself. No longer the guy people would throw rocks at and shun from their village for making matters worse every time he tried to help.

But alas, this had all been before he had done that which he always did. Ruin it. He could never return to the brotherhood anymore. He would not allow his lack of honor to taint the name of an otherwise fine party.

He sighed with closed eyes as he put the feather onto the stack of his belongings he had chosen to leave behind, placing a rock on it so it wouldn’t fly away. He noticed how much this now looked like the grave of an unnamed soldier and decided that this was probably for the best. If anyone found this stuff, let them think that Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove was dead, for nothing else was the case. He wouldn’t want his friends to come chasing after ghosts. If they ever came looking for him, let their search end here.

He knelt in front of the feather and sent one final thought out to everyone connected to it. He thought of Yugo and Adamai and hoped those two would eventually end up finding their family or at least find out what had happened to it. But regardless of whether they would manage to do so or not, he still believed great things would await them in the end if they managed to remain as youthful and optimistic as they were now.

Then he thought of Amalia who must hope to defend her kingdom and the tree of life against Nox’ armies. Worry for her wellbeing tried gathering in his heart, but he quickly dismissed it again, reminding himself that it was no longer his concern. She had fine friends at her side who would be there to help her, unlike him.

Ruel, that old and stingy geezer who had always patiently explained things to him, no matter how hard it was for him to understand. Dally would miss his talks with him, for few people had showed him the same patience and respect as he had done without belittling him for his lack of knowledge and intelligence at the same time.

And Eva…he bit on his lip and clenched his fists as he wiped away the tears of regret that had formed in his eyes by now. For as much as it was worth, he truly was sorry. About everything. Meeting her might have been the single best thing that had ever happened to him. Never before had he cared so strongly for someone and never before had he felt so appreciated by someone in return. For all the shortcomings he may have had, she had made him feel like he hadn’t been that bad a guy to be around of. Many people had he met on his adventures, many arms that would push him away as soon as he wasn’t useful anymore. But not hers. Hers had been open wide, inviting. Accepting. And after all the years of aimlessly and unsuccessfully looking for a place where he might belong, she had put an end to it by making him feel like he had finally found a place he could call home.

All the more unforgiving did that make the crime that resulted from his betrayal against her. She had not deserved to be treated the way he had treated her. For that reason alone he almost wished he had never met her. If only to have spared her the pain he had caused her simply by having been her friend.

He shook his head as he allowed the tears to freely flow now.

She would have been better off, had she just pushed him away like everyone else had.

He forced himself to stand, deciding that he had wasted enough time mourning the death of Sir Perdecal of Sadlygrove. The man he had killed with his own two hands. It was time to go. This was goodbye.

“Farewell, my friends. Farewell…my love.”

He took his first step onto the scorching sand, his barefoot feet already crying out in pain, begging him to return.

He never did.

\---+---

After this, many things had happened. He had been walking aimlessly around in a desert for quite some while. For how long exactly, he was not entirely sure himself. The sun had scorched his skin and his throat had been drier than a saltine cracker, and still, hungry as he had been, he would have eaten even that just to fill the painful void in his stomach.

Along the way, he must have lost his mind, for he had started talking to himself and seeing illusions of things that could not have been there (even though he would have given _anything_ for at least a certain one of Evangelyne having been real, even if only for just a minute…)

It wasn’t long after that he started to believe that his assumption of him being able to actually grow old here might have been a tad bit too optimistic, after all. Just about as he was starting to think this might be his end, he had run into his master’s tomb and entered it.

He hadn’t been sure why. Maybe to seek his forgiveness, or at least give him a summary of what had happened to his hopeless student. Maybe a part of him had merely thought about choosing his master’s side as his final resting place, although he wasn’t sure if that might have been a disrespectful thing to do. It was just that the prospect of dying all alone ended up being just too sad a fate to bear, even if that would have been his just reward.

Either way, no matter what his intentions really had been for going there, none of it had ended up mattering. It turned out his late master hadn’t been as dead as he had previously assumed him to be, and while Dally didn’t quite understand how this could be (perhaps this was yet another one of these illusions…?), for that specific moment in time he simply hadn’t cared about the details either way.

Reuniting with his master had given him new strength, had reignited the fire in his heart he had thought to have died out. But it hadn’t. Below the ashes, embers of his previous fire had managed to hold on to their heat, waiting, hoping to be given the chance to be reawakened and turned yet again into the strong fire they had once been.

It led Percedal into a weird state of existence. Neither dead, nor reborn, he had been simply there once more, looking, searching for his place in the world. Same as he had always done. His master may have managed to return his will to live back to him, but in the end, he was still lost…with no way of knowing which direction to take from now on.

They had set out to retrieve Rubi. His master had been sure that this would be the correct path for him to take. Dally, however, wasn’t so sure about that. A second chance might have been too big a gift for someone like him and he simply wasn’t certain he actually deserved it.

He knew, deep down in his heart, that he still wished to be a hero. To be the man people would look up to and tell stories about to their kids. To inspire them to, one day, be not only like him, but perhaps even _better_.

He wanted to be the Iop that could stand shoulder on shoulder with his friends and laugh together with them. One who could charge into battle valiantly, knowing his friends would have his back. One strong enough to be their shield equally as much as they were to him.

He wanted to be the Iop that was worthy to stand at Evangelyne’s side. Someone whose presence made her offer him that beautiful smile of hers that could melt any heart, instead of making her shed these heartbreaking tears which felt at least as devastating to him as Ogrest’s ones were to the world.

But what he wanted and what he deserved…were those things really one and the same?

The sins he had committed, could they ever be truly forgiven?

Could Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove _really_ be redeemed? Reborn?

These thoughts whirling around in his head ended up being way heavier than the giant beast skull he was currently pulling behind him for reasons he didn’t quite understand himself. But his master had told him to do so, and so he would. After all, his master always seemed to have a plan, unlike him.

“Seems that your idea to trace your own footprints back to where you came from finally paid off, Dally-o. This Evangelyne must have taught you well.” Master Goultard told him with a pleased grin present on his face. He held up his hand to shield his eyes from the glaring sun as he looked up ahead, apparently spotting something. “Looks like we’ve found Rubi at last.”

“Huh?” Dally couldn’t help but feel slightly confused about his master’s words. This just couldn’t be. He had buried Rubi _outside_ the desert. As far as he could tell, they were still a fair way off from leaving it again. He strained his eyes to follow his master’s gaze but couldn’t really make out anything. He silently wondered if his master hadn’t secretly been a Cra all along with eyesight as sharp as his must have been.

That’s when he happened to notice a cloud of dust rapidly approaching them. But it was quite weird. Instead of moving forward in a straight line, it moved around erratically in zigzag lines, moving from rock to rock, sliding down dunes and jumping over bigger obstacles rather than move around them. Rather than a natural phenomenon or a mindless beast, the dust cloud seemed to originate from a sentient being and, true enough, for a fraction of a second, Dally thought he could make out the blurry shape of a person whenever they jumped off the ground momentarily.

The mysterious stranger eventually crashed down in front of them like a meteor, whirling around yet another cloud of dust.

“Found you at last, Percedal.” Rubi’s voice could be heard from amidst the dust as it finally settled. “And look who I managed to find along the way. Say, did you miss us?” He laughed evilly.

When Dally finally had the chance to lower the arm he had raised to shield himself from the incoming blast of sand, he eventually got to see the person Rubi had ended up possessing. A rather slender figure compared to how he looked when he was fused with Rubi, which made it obvious that it must have been a woman. Her long, golden hair glowed like embers, occasionally sending out flame sparks into her surroundings and on her head, two enormous and curved horns sprouted. Rubilax’ eye itself was placed on her forehead, like always, right above and between the gleaming eyes of the demonified woman. Around her neck, the remains of his old and torn surcoat hung like a scarf, its ends whirling in the harsh desert winds. It would have been odd for someone to wear this, had it not been for the rest of her rather familiar apparel that eventually gave away just who exactly this woman had to be.

Pointing a finger at her and tilting his head uncertainly, he eventually asked: “Evan…gelyne?”

“Bingo, loverboy. Turns out our little Evangelyne wasn’t very happy about being left behind by you, either. Now ain’t that right, Eva?” Rubi asked as he looked down on his new partner in crime who merely offered Dally an angry glare as she stomped the ground, clearly not amused.

Dally took a step back nervously. Now that was seriously scary. Behind him, Master Goultard lazily approached him as he massaged the back of his neck.

“That’s your girl? Can’t say I can get behind your taste, Dally-o.” He said, not looking very impressed. Catching that rude remark, Eva took out a small object that magically transformed itself into a giant bow on the spot. It was surrounded by dark, reddish flames and immediately produced an arrow of demonic energy which she shot at him with no hesitation at all. All of that had happened in the blink of a moment, so fast that Dally had barely even registered it from happening, yet Goultard merely caught the projectile casually in between his fingers before it could hit him.

Eva took a step back, sweating nervously. What kind of monster was able to react that fast? Yet the master appeared to be quite excited for some reason, beholding the arrow in his hand from multiple sides while laughing in an impressed fashion.

“I take that back, Dally-o. That girl packs quite the punch. She’s a keeper for sure.” He told his student with a big grin, playfully trying out the sharpness of the arrow’s tip with his index finger before casually throwing the arrow to his side. It flew for a few meters before hitting the ground, resulting in a giant explosion.

Dally’s jaw dropped as he witnessed the sheer destruction that resulted from this single arrow and was seriously amazed his master had just played around with it in his hands as if it was nothing.

“Eva, I forgot to tell you, but you would be better off refraining from targeting that weirdo over there. He’s a monster. Nothing good comes from getting involved with him.” Rubilax told his new vessel. Hearing this, Eva nodded heavily, clearly agreeing and still a bit shocked about that guy’s strength.

“That’s quite rude, Rudi. Is that how you greet an old friend?” Goultard said with a cocky grin and rolled his shoulders as if to warm himself up. “Seems like I will have to teach you some manners, eh?”

He stretched out his right arm and a glowing hole appeared on it, but right as something was supposed to come out of it, Dally got in the way and shoved the supposed weapon back in forcefully before it could fully materialize. Then he jumped in front of his master and formed a big X with his arms to show his clear objection regarding that idea.

“No, no, no, no, no, NO. Are you crazy? You will cut Eva in half! No way am I letting that thing anywhere near her. In fact, don’t even think about sneezing into her general direction, master!” He pointed out worriedly and angrily scolded his teacher.

Said man was seen blinking at him in wonder, followed by looking at Eva and taking hold of his chin thoughtfully. “Oh, I suppose you make a valid point.” He admitted as if he had only just realized this.

“But then how are you gonna get Rubi back?”

Dally hit his left palm with his right fist determinedly. “Gonna do it the Yugo way. Rip him right out.”

His teacher closed his eyes approvingly and nodded. “Ah, that Yugo fella must be a fine Iop. Ripping him out. I like it. It’s simple, it’s fun, it’s cool, it’s Iop.”

“Actually, he’s not-“ Dally wanted to point out his friend’s real identity, but was interrupted by Rubilax yelling at him angrily.

“Hey, are you quite done ignoring us? We’ve got a score to settle here.” Eva nodded in agreement, both arms folded in front of her chest.

Dally looked at the possessed Cra with sad eyes. “Eva…just what happened to you…?”

For a moment, Eva’s eyes seemed to lose the demonic glow and she appeared to be sad as she slowly raised a hand in Dally’s direction. Rubi, however, merely eyed her angrily and shouted:

“Hey, hey, hey. Focus there, sister. You hate that guy, remember? He destroyed your bow. He left you. Threw you away like trash, just as he has done with me.”

The anger returned into the demonified Cra’s eyes. She may have had troubles sorting her thoughts right now, but that didn’t sound like a lie. She clearly remembered having been angry at that Iop.

Dally panicked and tried to object. “No, hold on! That’s not-“

Rubilax would have none of that, however.

“Silence, Percedal. You left us. We didn’t like that. So since you broke this girl’s heart, she is gonna break your neck. Let’s go, Eva.” He looked down at her and told her to advance, only to see her still standing still with a rather sad expression and ears now drooping in unwillingness.

Breaking Dally’s neck? She shook her head heavily. Let’s not.

“Uuuh, you don’t wanna break his neck? Then how about his ribs? Those should be fine, no?” Rubi offered her a compromise.

She frowned at him. She would rather not.

“How about his legs, then? It won’t kill him, but still hurts like hell.” He laughed in anticipation of hearing Dally scream in pain, begging for mercy. “Plus, he won’t be able to run away anymore. Win/Win, right?”

An evil grin formed itself on Eva’s lips. Now _that_ sounded very good to her.

“Hold on, that’s a joke, right Eva?” Dally asked her nervously once he saw her suddenly aiming her bow at him.

Rubi offered him a demonic laugh in response. “You better believe it, Dally-boy. We two are coming for you. But look, I see that this would be a bit unfair, so we will give you a 3 second head start, for old time’s sake. What do you say?”

“Screw you, Rubi! You will pay for this, you hear me?” The redhead yelled in annoyance as he pointed his fist at the demonic eye present on Eva’s forehead. That darn Rubi, always causing trouble for him and now Eva, too.

The demon, however, chose to merely ignore him as he began counting with a teasing voice.

“One.” An arrow of darkish energy appeared in Eva’s hand as she pulled it back in her bow. Oh crap, not another one of those! He couldn’t catch them like his master did. If they hit him, he was toast.

“For real!?” Dally exclaimed in shock and turned around to run away. “This gotta be a joke.”

“Two.” Evangelyne took aim.

“Three seconds he said. Where am I supposed to go in three seconds, idiot!? There is nothing here!” The fleeing Iop yelled, looking around only to see an endless desert in all directions. There was no cover anywhere. That freaking Rubi…

Rubi chuckled at his guardian’s visible frustration. That’s what he got for trying to leave him behind.

“Three!” The demon shouted in excitement, expecting Eva to let the deadly projectile fly right at Dally. And yet she hesitated.

She had him in her sights. Hitting him would be child’s play. All she needed to do was let go, but she didn’t. Instead, she could do little but sigh in frustration as she aimed the arrow up into the sky and released the shot that way instead.

Rubi looked down on her in disappointment and annoyedly said: “You damn softy…”

The possessed Cra could do little but narrow her eyes on him embarrassedly as she flicked his eye. Shut up, demon.

The arrow eventually exploded in midair, its demonic energy now falling down from above in the form of many smaller projectiles. Dally had his hands full with dodging the resulting rain of destruction as explosions after explosions began going off all around him, nearly knocking him down more than just once.

As he was running for his life, Goultard appeared next to him, jogging casually as he laughed.

“Ah, I see you are getting a foretaste of how married life’s gonna be. This sure takes me back.” He said, looking somewhat nostalgic.

“You were married once, master?” Dally appeared to be shocked about that.

“Yes, one time I was even married to two wives at the same time without even knowing.” He laughed loudly. “You see, I went on an adventure that ended up being so long, I forgot I was married in the first place. Was really awkward once the first wife found me.”

“That’s horrible, master!”  His student looked appalled by that revelation, yet Goultard merely laughed some more.

“I know, right?” Seriously, sometimes Dally wasn’t sure whether his master was being serious or joking. “But what about you, Dally-o? Are you having fun? If so, you can look forward to a whole lot more of this.” He grinned as he began counting on his fingers. “Forget to take out the trash, wake up to this. Bought the wrong groceries? This. If she is on her period, no matter what you do, again, this. And don’t even get me started on what it’s like once you get her pregnant!”

Dally nearly got hit by one of the many demonic energy arrows raining down from above and was about to stumble and fall, when Goultard casually caught him and made him regain his balance.

“Why…? What happens…when she becomes…pregnant?” Dally asked worriedly, slowly running out of breath from all the running and dodging.

Goultard smirked. “Oh, I am not gonna tell. Gotta leave something as a surprise now, no?”

Dally gulped, but then realized something and immediately stopped running.

What the hell was he doing, worrying about possibilities for a faraway future his master was telling him about? Did it matter right now? Iops lived for the moment, not the future. There was no use worrying about things that lied so far ahead of time.

Speaking of worry and fear, what was he doing running away? A brave knight never ran away from danger! So what if Eva was scary when she was angry? Iops laugh in the face of danger. He turned around, facing Eva who was giving chase after him. A smirk appeared on his lips as he eagerly hit his palm with his fist.

“Here I come, Eva!” He yelled excitedly as he started running at her, dodging the remaining demonic projectiles in the process. Both were now approaching each other rapidly with neither of them slowing down. When it finally came to the moment of impact, Dally reacted instinctively, gabbing one of her arms in order to pull her over his shoulder and throw her to the ground. However, he massively overestimated her weight and ended up sending her flying away accidentally by using too much force.

“Ah! Eva!” He exclaimed in panic as he held each sides of his head, watching her fly through the air. However, the possessed Cra merely performed a skillful backflip and safely landed on her legs, causing Dally to put a hand on his chest as he uttered a relieved sigh. Her demonification hadn’t taken away her natural agility, it seemed.

She came running at him once more, making him smirk. Alright, round two. This time he would make sure to plant a hit on Rubi, make him really sorry for possessing Eva. However, right as they were about to collide again, Eva quickly side-stepped his attack in the last moment, making him miss his strike.

“You might want to be less obvious when fighting someone with Cra-eyes, idiot.” Rubilax taunted him cockily. “You are way too easy to read.” And with that, Eva punched him in his wide open rips before he could recover his stance.

However, soon after seeing him being sent away by the force, repeatedly rolling off the ground, the possessed Cra kept alternating between looking at Dally in worry and at her fist in surprise. Did she overdo it?

“Quit worrying for the enemy and just finish him off…” Rubi told her with an annoyed voice. She frowned at him and ran after Dally.

Said Iop had eventually come to a halt after having landed face first into the sand. Pulling his head out of it and spitting out the dirt that had ended up in his mouth, he was trying to make his vision stop from spinning by shaking his head repeatedly. He heard Eva approaching from behind him and quickly got up. However, he was so dizzy, he almost fell right back over once he tried turning around to face her.

You would have expected an enemy to use this chance to give him the rest, yet Eva was merely seen standing in front of him, doing nothing but watch him trying to collect himself.

“Urgh, I guess I deserved that one.” Dally moaned as he tried gathering his strength once more. “Rubi feeds off negativity, so you being this strong means you must be very angry with me.” He lowered his gaze in sadness. “I just want to tell you that I am sorry, Eva. I know your bow was precious to you. I didn’t mean to destroy it…I wasn’t thinking straight at the time. I never wanted to make you cry…”

For some reason, this seemed to make Eva even angrier, as she was seen clenching her fists and gritting her teeth. Rubi rolled his eyes.

“Told ya he wouldn’t get it. He still thinks this is because of the bow.”

Dally blinked it them, clearly confused. “What else would this be about?” He knew losing a bow was the greatest shame of any Cra, so what could have been even worse than that?

“Forget it, loverboy. You never were smart enough to understand even the most basic stuff, so of course you wouldn’t understand other people’s feel-“ Rubi’s taunt was interrupted by Eva who merely punched his eye on her forehead. “Ouch! Hey, sister. What gives?” Another hit. “Ow, stop it, will you?” Eva was about to hit him again, when he finally said. “Ok, ok. Geez, I will shut up for now. Make it quick, though. We got bones to break over there.” He looked at Dally bloodthirstily.

Dally tilted his head, now even more confused than before. Just what the hell was going on here? Before he could ask, Eva stepped forward and opened her mouth.

“Dally…” He flinched in surprise as he heard her voice for the first time since their reunion. It sounded off and she seemed to have a lot of trouble forming the words she wanted to say. Clearly a side effect of Rubi’s possession. It became very hard to form thoughts when a Shushu clung to your mind, constantly trying to seize control, so it was surprising she even could form words at all, to be honest.

“….you….left…..me.” She struggled to say, her whole posture collapsing unto itself as she eyed him sadly.

He eyed her in surprise at these words, followed by looking away, unable to still look her in the eyes.

“Yes. I was too ashamed because of what I did. I couldn’t face you again afterwards…I was sure you would hate me and figured I would do you a favor by not showing my face around you anymore.”

She stomped on the ground angrily, glaring at him with furious eyes. “Not….for you….to decide…!”

He blinked at her in wonder before realization seemed to hit him. He smiled sadly and looked down. “I see, you wanted to kill me to regain your honor then.”

“No!” She yelled at him, slamming the ground in front of her to vent her frustration. “Why….won’t….you…understand!” She shook her head, straining herself to speak.

“I’ve…missed…you!” She eventually admitted after a short pause, her eyes now finally tearing up. “Came…looking…for…you...”

“Wha-“ He couldn’t believe his ears right now. “But I destroyed your…”

“Doesn’t…matter…” She interrupted him, shaking her head fiercely. “Come…back…to me. Never…leave….again…Iop brain!” She sniffled and used her arm to wipe away her tears that were now freely flowing. “Stop…making…me…cry…”

Dally seemed speechless, merely opting in to look at her with a dumbfounded expression. Never in a million years would he have even dreamt of hearing her speak those words to him again.

No way…could this girl be truly this kind? Here he had thought she would push him away now like any other normal person would after the way he had hurt her. But she…she had never stopped keeping her arms open for him. The home he had thought lost…it had never disappeared in the first place.

Now he felt like crying, too.

“Eva, I…” He slowly reached out to her, when a sudden burst of demonic power pushed him away. Eva cried out as if in pain and held her head, screaming.

“I’ve had enough of this soap opera.” The redheaded Iop heard Rubilax say annoyedly. “I came here to teach lessons and if this chick won’t do it, I will merely have to do it myself.”

He saw Eva being consumed by a darkish red aura as she continued screaming in agony, falling to her knees and bending over, never stopping to clench her head. Her eyes began glowing in a fiendish red, causing her to close them in fear. Dally watched in horror as he was forced to witness Eva’s mental struggle to keep Rubilax out of her head, to keep in control.

For naught.

When the aura eventually vanished from existence once more, it wasn’t Eva who got up on her feet again.

It was Rubi.

“Now, where were we?” He said with an evil grin, clicking his knuckles in sweet anticipation of a fight. “Oh, right. I was about to kick your ass. Let’s see how you like being buried alive, idiot!”

Dally wasn’t even listening to him, already dashing forward with a raised fist, ready to beat that demon out of Eva. Rubi merely caught his fist and held it firmly as he began flailing Dally around like a simple toy, smashing him against the ground multiple times.

“Gotta try harder there, Dally-boy. I am not your precious girlfriend. I won’t be holding back on ya like she did.” As he said that, he effortlessly flung him aside, making him roll off the sand for quite a few meters.

“Release her…” The redheaded knight demanded as he slowly got up again. “…at once, Rubi!”

“Nah, I think I will pass. Turns out you were right, Dally. You said a better guardian than you would show up and not even half a day later Eva appears outta nowhere. I will admit, it’s harder controlling her mind than your rather simple one, but it comes with a sweet set of skills. Like this.”

He summoned back the bow and drew back another one of these demonic arrows, aiming it directly at Dally’s head.

“Catch!” As he released the arrow, Dally barely had any time to react in order to dodge it, rolling off to his side at the very last moment. However, the shockwave of the explosion it caused still managed to hit him and sent him flying. Still, he was quick to recover, quickly getting up and assuming his battle position once more. His eyes were fixed on Rubi angrily.

“Last chance to leave Eva out of this, Rubi. This is between you and me. Nobody else.” He clenched his hand into a fist and swept it through the air angrily.

“No, Dally. This stopped being your business the moment you threw me away. So let me tell you how this goes now:” He smirked as a stony clone dug itself out of the sand, followed by another. And another. More and more joined him, slowly digging themselves out of the sand, getting on their feet and each summoning a bow and aiming demonic arrows at him, albeit weaker looking ones. They were all direct stone copies of a possessed Eva.

“First I am gonna finish you off here and bury your sorry corpse right where you stand. Then I will be taking Eva back to that stupid castle to beat up that snobby prince and everyone else that is there.” He laughed evilly. “Imagine the look on her face when she eventually wakes up to find everything she knew and loved gone from existence, destroyed by her own two hands. Once I break her spirit completely that way, she will be my vessel forever.”

Dally couldn’t help but imagine a future in which Eva was finally released from Rubilax’ possession briefly only to wake up amidst the burning ruins of her home and surrounded by a pile of corpses that once used to be her friends. Having seen her cry at her broken bow had been heartbreaking enough as it was…by the time he had to picture her sadness and despair about her having lost everything, something in his mind had already snapped. It was not something he ever wanted to see. Not something he wanted Eva to ever go through. From deep within, he felt his rage building up. His ears started ringing from how much his blood started to boil.

And suddenly, everything was gone.

His mind was blank. Reduced to instinct alone.

All he knew was that Rubi was an enemy. Enemies had to be defeated.

He stomped on the ground heavily, causing a huge cloud of sand to block Rubi’s and his clones’ view. Then, from one moment to the next, he advanced rapidly, jumping on the nearest clone before it had time to aim at him. He pounced on it like an animal, tearing it apart with every hit until it went limb just in time to be used as a shield for the incoming arrows of the remaining clones.

Still using the clone as a shield, he began sprinting towards his next enemy, choosing to ram him head on with it and breaking him in the process. Another one standing near the last victim was soon to perish as well as Dally now threw the crumbling shield directly against his face. Then he simply ran towards the next clone standing in between him and the real Rubilax, simply dodging the incoming fire.

Now realizing that shooting at Dally might not yield satisfactory results, some of the clones put down their bows in an attempt to engage the unstoppable Iop in melee combat, but Dally didn’t even allow himself to waste his time with the small fries. He merely dove kicked the first one foolish enough to get in his way and grabbed the fool by his leg as he flew backwards to whirl him around like a big, stony club. Clone after clone shattered apart and fell to the ground as Dally kept focusing his sights on the real Rubilax, still advancing. Once the last clone had ceased to exist, the instinct-driven knight merely threw the remains of his makeshift weapon at Rubi who simply deflected the projectile with a lazy swipe of the hand.

“Not bad, Percedal. But not good enough!” Rubi smirked confidently as he raised his fist high above his head and brought it down right as the Iop approached him. Rubi had used so much power that Dally was smacked right into the ground and happened to fall through the ceiling of his master’s now empty tomb. The confident demon couldn’t help but laugh proudly as he looked into the hole he had pushed Dally into.

“That’s right, Percy. If you are smart you stay right in there. It’s where you belong, after all.”

Not even a second later, he could hear something breaking behind him as Dally came jumping out of the ground and straight onto his back, pushing the demon into the ground in the process. From there, he wordlessly kept throwing punches against Rubi’s eye, careful not to harm Eva in any way.

“You start to annoy me.” Rubi growled as he endured the abuse long enough for him to gather more demonic energy in his right arm., followed by ramming his elbow into Dally’s stomach, knocking him about a meter into the air. Using the chance, Rubi then turned around to hit Dally again as he came falling back down, planting a nasty uppercut right into the Iop’s face. The force of the impact alone threw Dally high into the air where he whirled around with no way of maneuvering anymore.

“This is the end, Dally-boy.” Rubi smirked, as he took out the demonic bow once more, pouring the remainder of his demonic power into one arrow to shoot at the helpless Iop berserker. Then he released the shot directly at him.

Dally had eventually reached the peak of how much gravity had been willing to let him distance himself from the ground. For the brief second before it would draw him back down towards the earth, he merely eyed the incoming arrow and decided to face it head on as he assumed a position that would allow him to dive straight down like an arrow himself.

To others it might have looked like suicide or madness, but to an Iop, this was the perfect approach. Never backing down from an enemy, always facing them head-on. It might have been simple and predictable, but this was the essence of being an Iop. An unbreakable will, earthshattering strength and something to fight for. That’s everything that Iops needed to win. He had all of this. He had had all of this all along.

He had had to lose his will to realize how indestructible it truly was. After all, it had come back to him even when he had hit rock bottom.

He had to give up his strength to realize how much of it had actually rested within him. He didn’t need Rubi to be strong. He was strong on his own.

He had had to let go of his previous reason to fight to truly realize what he needed to fight for instead. It never was about showing others that he was the strongest, to gain their respect. Ultimately, nothing of that crap mattered. The thing he actually had to fight for, the thing that really mattered…

…it was his Cra’s smile.

He needed to protect it at all cost. Never would he make her cry again! That he swore on his honor as a knight!

And just like that, Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove was reborn!

He and the demonic arrow collided, or at least that’s what should have happened. Instead, he managed to avoid it by a hair’s length, letting it merely graze his left side instead. It burned the side of his face, his ear and even singed his hair, causing tremendous pain in the process.

He ignored it as he continued his rapid descend, aiming straight for Rubilax. He eventually crashed right into him like a meteor, knocking him over and pinning him against the ground. With both his hands occupied with keeping the demon down, he naturally needed a different way of hitting Rubi, and so he used his head instead, repeatedly smacking it against Eva’s forehead where Rubi was still attached to her.

His assault was relentless. With no signs of ever tiring or slowing down, he just kept slamming his own head against Rubi in reckless abandon. He intended to keep doing so until either he or Rubi passed out. The true Iop way. Fight to the bitter end.

“Urgh, stop it, you fool! I said stop! Damnit, why is it that the only time you decide to actually use your head, it ends up being in a weaponized way. Come on, will you stop already? Hey!” Rubi tried to communicate with the crazed Iop but never got a response. He just kept hitting him with his head stubbornly.

However, his efforts appeared to not be in vain as Rubi eventually started showing signs of exhaustion which Dally immediately interpreted as his chance to separate him from Eva. He took the piece with Rubi’s eye that was attached to her forehead with both his hands and began pulling. There was some resistance initially, but the more he pulled, the weaker the resistance eventually became. Until Rubi came off in the end, reverting to his original dagger-shape that idly rested in his hand.

“Damn, I always knew you where a blockhead, but that was certainly new…” Rubi muttered as his eye kept spinning in its prison, apparently dizzy from all the beating it had taken.

Below Dally, Eva gradually turned back into her original shape as well, exchanging demonic features for her normally quite angelic ones, or at least that’s how he would describe them. She didn’t appear to be conscious but he could make out the soft noise of her breathing, which made him sigh in relief. As if this realization had flipped a switch in his head, his anger now started to dissipate gradually, causing his rationality to return to him in its stead. The first thing he noticed was the pain all over his body, followed by the fatigue in his muscles. With his last remaining strength, he managed to roll off Eva and lied down next to her, looking up at the sky with Rubi still in his hand.

“Rubi…” He groaned tiredly.

“What is it?” The demon asked back, sounding equally as tired.

“We had fun on our adventures together, didn’t we?”

“Well, I suppose so.” Rubi gave a roundabout answer, not wanting to give Dally the satisfaction of him admitting that it actually had been fun.

“I think so, too.” Dally agreed with him, smiling weakly. “But we can’t be going on like this anymore, you understand?”

“I swear, if you burry me again, I will freaking end you, you hear me?” Rubi growled angrily, causing Dally to chuckle.

“I won’t burry you, if you can promise me that we will be a team from now on. That means no more hurting my friends.” He threw a glance at Evangelyne. “And especially no more hurting Eva.”

“Pah! Why should I promise you that? There is nothing in it for me.” Rubi replied dismissively, rolling his eye at his suggestion.

“That’s not true. We would be friends. Pals going through thick and thin. Doesn’t sound that bad now, does it?” He grinned at his own suggestion.

“Sounds retarded. I am a Shushu. I do not make friends with puny humans.”

“Why not?”

“’Cause I am a demon! The prime evil! I seek nothing but to destroy!” Rubi told him arrogantly, to which he merely shrugged.

“And I am an Iop. We are known for wrecking stuff wherever we go. But what if we took all these destructive capabilities and direct them at some bad guys? Who knows, we might even become legends together? Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove and Rubilax the legendary Shushu sword, known to fell every foe in the world of twelve.”

It seemed like that got Rubi’s attention. “Everyone will know my name? Fear me?” He appeared to be excited for a brief moment before he quickly regained his composure. He was a demon, damnit. He should act more like one.

“Well, dunno about being feared, but you would certainly be known and respected.” Dally told him, chuckling slightly.

“Respected, huh…” This got him thinking. He had never been properly respected, not even by his peers. His king treated him like dirt despite being a level 4 demon and as a result of that, the other demons, even the ones below him, looked down on him as well. He had originally come to the human world to conquer it for his king to gain his favor and finally become accepted, but he ended up getting subdued by Goultard and put into this prison for ages only to be handed down to Dally.

It had felt belittling at first, having to be used as a weapon for some bratty Iop of all things. But even so, it ended up being quite fun after a while. Percedal may have been an idiot and having to deal with his antics had nearly driven him mad more times than he could count, but unlike Rubi’s peers, Dally had never pushed Rubi away, had never treated him like unwanted trash. It was oddly refreshing, but also infuriating to feel more accepted by a lowly human than by his own kind.

He growled internally as he realized the reason why he secretly might have enjoyed touring the world with Dally. They had both been fairly similar. Both of them had been looking for a place they could be welcomed at. Dally was a moron and being stuck with him was simply agonizing. But it was also fun. They fought lots of people. Broke bones, dished out serious pain. They annoyed one another, fought with each other and heck, sometimes they even laughed together.

Sometimes, Rubi thought, Dally wasn’t half bad for a human. Could even have made half a decent demon, perhaps. And when he had thrown him away, Rubi had gotten angry because he had felt abandoned by yet another person that could have possibly been a friend.

Destruction was fine. Carnage was beautiful. He reveled in anarchy and chaos.

….but loneliness sucked. It really did.

It was very conflicting for a demon like him to actually consider agreeing to Dally’s proposal. In the end, as a demon, it lied in Rubi’s nature to cause chaos. To destroy everything he came across. But sometimes he wondered if that really had to define him. After all, his demon brothers and sisters had already shunned him for no reason whatsoever. And these humans he had been travelling with…they didn’t seem to hate him all that much compared to his demonic brethren. It went against the laws of nature, but maybe the laws of nature were the ones that were fucked up. Not him.

If demons decided they wouldn’t want to be part of his family, maybe humans would?

He sighed internally, not sure what to make of all of this. In the end, he would never truly belong anywhere, no matter the side.

For now, maybe sticking around with that Iop and his band of friends might not be all that bad. For all the shortcomings Dally had, he was still a pretty good guy. For a human.

And quite the tough guy as well. He chuckled, still feeling the pain from the fight they had just had.

“You know what? You promise we are going to beat up a bunch of idiots together every chance we get and I will promise to keep your friends safe. And your sweetheart, too. Deal?”

Dally lifted him up weakly to look him in the eye with a confident smirk. “You’ve got yourself a deal, pal.”

Rubi narrowed his eye on him. “Don’t call me pal.”

The redhead merely chuckled in amusement as he slowly attempted to get up, putting Rubi away on his belt in the process. “I beat your ass, Imma go call you whatever the hell I want.”

“It hasn’t even been 10 seconds and I am starting to regret my decision already…” Rubi groaned as he watched him kneeling next to Eva. He removed the makeshift scarf she wore and instead put the piece of cloth around her as some kind of robe to try and protect her rather pale skin from the glaring sun, then gently lifted her up like the princess she wasn’t, yet would always be according to his heart. Tiredness and strain defined his posture, but he still forced a smile on his lips as he took his first step forward.

“Let’s go back, Rubi.”

“While I agree with you, I hardly think you will get very far, looking like that.” The demon objected with a sigh.

“What do you mean?”

“Your face is swollen. You are limping. Some of your rips must be broken as well. You are a wreck, Dally-boy. You will never make it out of the desert this way, I am afraid.” Rubi gave him the facts.

“Nonsense. ‘tis but a flesh wound. A knight such as myself gotta shrug this stuff off like it’s nothing. Besides, I got a duty to fulfill. Eva came all the way here to smack some sense into me. I would be damned if I couldn’t take her back into safety at least.” With the determination of an Iop, Dally merely pressed on. One step at a time.

“Do you even know where you are going, idiot?” The Shushu sword asked him in annoyance only to realize he wasn’t even responding anymore. “Hey! Pea brain, I am talking to you!”

That’s when he noticed how Dally was slowly falling forward, holding Eva an arm’s length away from him so he wouldn’t accidentally fall on her. He didn’t move afterwards, merely lied there motionlessly, knocked out cold. Typical, Rubi thought. Never knowing his limits, the guy kept going until he fell into unconsciousness. The only way to stop the stubbornness of an Iop was for their body to shut down, apparently.

“We are all gonna die here, aren’t we…?” Rubi asked rhetorically with a halfway narrowed down eye. Well, it wasn’t like he could die inside his prison, but these two morons just might.

As he was about to figure out how to fix this mess somehow, he heard Goultard land next to them after having jumped over from the position he had been sitting in previously, enjoying the show from the shade with a cool drink at his side. Eying the situation briefly, he merely put both his hands on each side of his waist and sighed.

“Welp, not exactly the way I had planned this to go, but I still suppose this was a great success nonetheless. What do you say, Rubi?”

Ignoring the question, Rubi simply decided to ask one of his own while rolling his eye at him: “How are you alive, again…?”

 “That’s a professional secret.” Was all Goultard gave him in response with a big grin and a wink. Then he walked over to his student and picked him up, carrying him under one arm while doing the same with Eva in his other one. He threw a quick glance at her and smiled.

“Can’t believe this one came all the way out here for Dally-o. Lucky guy.”

“They match quite nicely.” Rubi laughed derisively. “She might just be as stupid as Percedal, after all. Why else would you go for an Iop brain like him?”

“I see you still have quite the foul mouth even after all these years, Rubi. You should consider being nicer to your only friend.” Goultard merely said as he began moving forward, using the sun to determine in which direction to take them in order to leave the desert.

“He is not my friend. Demons don’t have friends. Only vessels. Pawns.” Rubi countered, sounding quite offended. Even if he were to have friends, he would never admit it willingly. Almost as if doing so would have been a sign of weakness.

“Yeah, yeah. You tell yourself that.”

Rubi didn’t reply afterwards, feeling like he just wouldn’t be able to win against this old bastard neither physically, nor mentally. Urgh, all these Iops sure were annoying to deal with.

And just like that, their travel out of the desert was held in pleasant silence.

\---+---

It was nighttime when Eva slowly woke up from her slumber. She blinked tiredly at the small camp fire burning in front of her and frowned in confusion as she tried to remember how she had ended up setting up camp when she was fairly sure she hadn’t done such a thing in the first place. She rubbed her eyes to look around, the weak light of the campfire not really illuminating enough of her surroundings to clearly tell apart much of it.

She winced as she felt some pain coming from her forehead. Touching it made her realize that there was a bruise she didn’t quite remember getting, either. Now this was starting to get quite weird. What had happened?

She remembered having followed Dally’s tracks until coming to a weird place that almost looked like a grave where she had found his belongings neatly placed on a stack next to a hole in the ground that had been dug out and closed up shortly after. It had looked rather recently done, too. Digging it up, she had found Rubilax lying inside who had told her that Dally had lost his mind, buried him, then ran off after brabbling something about his quest being over, him being sorry and giving everyone his farewells.

This had rung her alarms, so she had wanted to give chase on the spot, but her Dragosteed had refused to enter the desert and she felt like she would never be able to catch up in that harsh environment on foot. Especially since following tracks in a desert were a risky thing. One sandstorm could already erase all tracks there could have been which not only made it hard for people to follow you, it also made it impossible for someone to find their way back. If Dally was particular unlucky, he would end up being lost in the desert and she didn’t know whether he actually knew of ways to tell his position without maps or tracks to follow. Maybe she should have made sure to teach him while she still had had the chance…

She had looked into the direction of the desert worriedly. There had been no time to waste here.

“Hey, missy. Need a hand?” Rubi had then asked her as she had still held him in her hand. Looking down on him, she had asked:

“You would help me?”

“As far as I can tell, we both have some unfinished business left with Percedal. However, I can’t move by myself and you can’t catch up to him before his tracks vanish into thin air, so what do you say? Wanna team up?”

She had eyed him suspiciously, not really willing to trust the words of a demon. This whole mess had also partially been his fault in the first place, and she had seen firsthand what making deals with demons could possibly lead to. Still…

Her gaze had wandered into the direction of the vast and harsh desert Dally had disappeared into. A sense of urgency had befallen her shortly after.

“We are just going to find Dally. No tricks, okay?”

“But of course. I will help you track that fool down, promise.”

She had walked over to the stash Dally had left behind, taken the blue Tofu feather into her possession, then checked the torn white cloth with Dally’s crest on it and wrapped it around her neck like a scarf. Once done, she had looked down at Rubi in her hand and said:

“Alright, Rubilax. Let’s go find Dally.”

“Thought you would never agree, missy.”

The mischief in his voice was the last thing she remembered.

The rest of her memories was merely a weird haze. A dream of sorts she just couldn’t quite remember. She was sure something must have happened but couldn’t quite tell what it had been.

“Oh, sleeping beauty is awake at last, eh?” Rubi’s voice snapped her out of it. He was stuck in the ground near the fire, eying her in a bored manner.

“Rubilax! What happened? Where are we?” She asked him with urgency, but still too tired to actually stand up and walk up to him. She hadn’t felt this drained since she had just gotten old enough to start her military training. Just what the hell had she and Rubi been doing? Was this how exhausted Dally must have felt every time he fused with this demon?

“Can’t you tell? Right where we started.” His gaze went over to something, making her eyes follow his. She spotted the hole in the ground she had dug him out of. A worrisome thought befell her.

“Why are we back here…? Don’t tell me we failed…?”

“Nah, we found him, alright. You’ve been drooling on his shoulder for the last two hours.” He told her. If she didn’t know better, she would think he was actually smirking at her from inside his prison.

“Droolin-“ She raised a brow in confusion, lifting a fist to check her mouth to find a dried off trail of saliva there. Embarrassed as she was about that, she quickly wiped it off, only to look to her left to check the spot she had been leaning against. What she saw there made her eyes open wide from surprise.

There, leaning against a tree, sat a certain Iop, sleeping peacefully.

Her darn runaway fugitive. Her long lost knight.

“Dally!”

Tears of relief formed themselves in her eyes as she hastily embraced that stupid Iop brain of hers. She was so glad to finally see him again but as she held him close, she noticed how hot his skin felt to the touch, as if it was inflamed. Taking a closer look, she quickly made the horrible realization that he was almost entirely covered in nasty blisters, suffering from severe sunburn.

“What in Cra’s name…!” Almost reflexively taking out a small pod filled with a greenish healing salve, she hastily opened up the lid to start carefully spreading the slightly glowing ointment on his inflamed skin. However, she was soon to realize she didn’t have even close to enough to actually cover all of his wounds with it. He would have to take a bath in it for it to actually work…she sighed in frustration.

“What were you thinking you damn fool!” She considered shaking him awake to give him a piece of her mind but then she saw all the various other injuries he had suffered somehow and her anger was quick to turn into worry instead.

“What…happened…to you?” She asked out aloud, eying him in quite some shock. He looked horrible. As if he had been swallowed up whole by a monster, chewed up and then spit out again like chewing gum.

“What do you mean, missy? That was all you. With my help, of course.” Rubi told her, sounding slightly proud of himself.

She eyed him in surprise for a second before directing her attention back at Dally, her fingers trailing the dark marks on his cheek where he had been scorched by demonic energy.

“I...did this…?” Her ears drooped in guilt. That wasn’t at all what she had wanted. She had meant to rough him up a little for making her cry, then make him see reason and drag him back. Not…whatever this was.

“Yup. Smacked some sense right back into him. Made him remember who he is. I told you we two would get him back. Welp, there he is.”

“Barely! A bit more and he would be a corpse instead!” She eyed the demon accusingly, but Rubi gave himself unimpressed.

“Relax. He is an Iop. That’s what they usually look like at least once a month. He has been through worse already. One time, he looked for the entry of a dungeon and almost fell into a volcano. Nastiest burns I have ever seen. But he just shed the ruined skin off and recovered only two weeks after. That’s just how Iops work. Hope you like the tan, though. He probably got blasted by the sun for long enough to make him last for years.” He laughed in great amusement. “Hah. Like an onion you left out in the sun for too long.” The echo of his laughter must have been audible for miles, Eva thought.

But still, hearing Rubi’s story eased up her worries slightly. If Iops really recovered that well, then the situation might look worse than it actually was. At least that was what she hoped as she watched her stupid Iop sleep, apparently too tired to even snore like he usually did. He looked oddly at peace which was so rare coming from him.

Dally was usually anything but peaceful. He was a force of nature, always in motion, never resting. A whirlwind of excitement that not only shook up his life, but the life of everyone around him. Sure, it was chaotic and hectic sometimes, but also a lot of fun. There was never a day like the last when being around this energetic knight. A refreshing experience after years upon years of following up the same old boring routine, the Cra thought.

Still, his peaceful state was also rather pleasant to look at. It was like marveling at a rare treasure, something you couldn’t witness just any normal day. His calm, relaxed expression. The sound of his soft breaths. She gently stroked his hair and got a small smile in return. When he was awake, he may have been a ferocious beast, leaving nothing but chaos in its wake, but right now, he was but a simple cub. He seemed to be small, gentle, vulnerable.

Quite cute, actually. Before she knew it, she had started to smile at him.

She got to see a rare side of her lovely Iop that barely anyone else ever got to see and that made her feel somewhat special.

As she snugged up to him once more to get through the rest of the night, she realized she still had to have a serious talk with him about his actions, but for now, she felt content enough just lying there with him at her side, just happy to have him back at last.

And as her arms wrapped up around him, she took hold of him tightly, unwilling to ever let him run away again.

He shifted in his sleep and his head fell on hers, now resting on top of it. His right arm took hold of her as well, keeping her close. She blinked at him in surprise at first, thinking he might have woken up, but she looked up at him, she saw him still fast asleep, his body seemingly having acted by itself. She giggled softly in amusement and closed her eyes, falling asleep shortly after, embraced by his warmth.

And just like that, the Iop and his Cra, the Beauty and her beast, were reunited once more.

 

\---Bonus scenes---

It had felt like days had already passed before Dally and Eva eventually managed to return to the kingdom of Sadida where they eventually reunited with the rest of the brotherhood, that had already been waiting for them. Everyone seemed happy and relieved to see their two friends again, until they eventually saw Dally and how beaten up he looked.

“Woah, Dally! What happened to you?” Yugo asked in shock as he looked at the redheaded knight in disbelief.

“Took a vacation, got a tan.” He jokingly replied with a grin.

“That’s not what he meant, idiot.” Amalia told him with narrowed down eyes and her arms folded in front of her chest. “What’s with the injuries?”

This, for some reason, got Eva rather flustered. Nervously laughing, she just tried to play the matter down.

“Oh, that.” She laughed awkwardly. “He just fell, right Dally?” Her gaze wandered to his, silently pleading him not to tell them she had been the reason. He didn’t quite get why, but he didn’t mind either way.

“Yep. Fell pretty hard. In love, that is.” His grin grew even wider when he saw Eva facepalm in shame, blushing at his words. It was rather cute, he thought.

“Gosh, Dally. Love sure seems to hurt…” The young Eliatrope couldn’t help but scratch his cheek awkwardly as he took a closer look at his numerous injuries.

“Trust me, Yugo. You have no idea…” He took a deep breath, only to let a stream of tears leave his eyes. “…how much this hurts.”

Next to him, Eva comfortingly patted his head with a kind smile. “It’s the sweetest kind of pain.”

While Ruel was seen nodding in agreement and Amalia raising a brow at them in confusion, Adamai chose to whisper into his brother’s ear worriedly.

“This love business seems to be rather dangerous, bro.”

Yugo gulped nervously. “Right. Gotta be extra careful with that stuff.”

\---+---

“Your majesty, as promised, I have found and retrieved my missing Iop. My mission was a complete success!” She reported back happily while saluting dutifully in front of her king.

King Oakheart and Prince Armand, however, didn’t seem to quite share her happiness. Rather than that, they kept staring at the battered up Iop with shock, sympathy and, in Armand’s case, a tad of schadenfreude as well, as he seemed to struggle keeping a grin from forming.

“Young man, are you feeling quite alright?” The king asked the redheaded Iop worriedly, seeing how he could barely even stand on his own two legs in his current state.

“Never been better! I would love to say that you should have seen the other guy, but…” Eva quickly elbowed him in his broken rips, but seeing him flinch in pain heavily, she quickly regretted her actions and threw his left arm over her shoulders to support him.

“Nothing an Eniripsa couldn’t fix, your majesty.” Eva ensured him, then averting her gaze as if slightly ashamed. “Which brings me to the reason I came to see you right away. If it isn’t too much to ask of you, could I hope for the assistance of the Eniripsa employed by your highness, perhaps? She is the best one in the city and I am afraid he might need the very best one available.”

The king blinked at her as if surprised she was even asking him for permission instead of just admitting the Iop into her care right away.

“But of course, Eva. Take him to her as soon as possible. Everything else can wait for until after she has taken a look at him.” The king told her, urging her to make haste.

Prince Armand came forward, summoning a pair of Sadida guards who then lifted Dally up and begun carrying him to the royal healer. While the redheaded Iop quite visibly objected, claiming he could walk on his own, Eva was instead seen bowing slightly in gratitude before following up right behind them. Only once they were gone did King Oakheart allow himself to lean back on his throne exhaustedly, muttering in disbelief:

“Remind me to never get on that girl’s bad side, Armand. I haven’t felt this much fear in front of a woman ever since your mother died.”

Standing next to him with his hands folded behind his back, he could do little but look into the direction they had left, nodding in agreement.

“If this is how she shows her affection, I dread to see what her wrath might look like.”

\---+---

“By Eniripsa, what happened to him?” The healer eventually asked them once she saw Dally being put in a hospital bed. She quickly came over to make a diagnose, only to get more shocked the longer she checked up on him.

“Several bone fractures, second degree burns all over your body, a dislocated shoulder…are those demonic scars?” She eyed him in absolute bafflement. “I am afraid of even just touching you, Sir Percedal. Lest I open up even more wounds by accident.”

“Just let me sleep for a day and it will be fine.” Dally merely tried to reassure her, waving the matter off casually which quite obviously didn’t work. The troubled Eniripsa directed her attention back to Eva as she whispered to her worriedly.

“No, seriously, what happened to him? Did he get trampled by a horde of trools? Demonic ones? I mean what else could have been vicious enough to leave someone in such a state? Not even bworks are this cruel and…”

The more she talked, the more frustrated Eva became, trying to keep her composure with closed eyes, eyebrows twitching in fury. Eventually, her patience ran too thin for her to keep her composure anymore, so she grabbed the nosy Eniripsa by the collar and yelled:

“For the love of Cra, just heal him, will you?!”

“Y-yes, right away, Ma’am!” Giving her a hasty salute, the terrified healer turned around to begin focusing her magic on Dally in fear of invoking the Cra’s fury by delaying any longer than this.

Said Cra could do little but take hold of her forehead and shake her head slowly, sighing at herself. She knew she had gone too far when she had tried to get Dally back, but she didn’t mean to hurt him so much! Why couldn’t people get off her case already? She was sorry, alright? She really was!

Her gaze traveled towards Dally as she eyed him with a heavy heart. He knew that, right? Yes, her anger could sometimes get a bit violent, but she would never actually want to beat him half to death. She wasn’t that kind of heartless Cra, you know?

Their eyes met briefly and all he did was give her one of his big grins accompanied by a thumbs up. This made her smile kindly back at him. That fool of hers didn’t even seem to mind. Knowing him, he would probably even hope she had left a few scars for him to brag about later. She softly giggled at the mere thought. He really was hopeless that way.

She came to his side, taking hold of his hand gently as she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, catching him quite by surprise.

“E-eva?”

“Sometimes you are cute when you are silly.” She told him with a bashful smile.

His surprised expression made way for a stupefied grin, blushing madly. A fire appeared in his eyes soon after, making him attempt to push the Eniripsa that was still treating him aside to get off his bed.

“Step aside, lady. I am already feeling quite well. Bring Nox to me, so I can bash his tincan face in!”

“S-sir Percedal, I am afraid I cannot let you leave in your condition! P-please! Be reasonable!” She and a bunch of Sadida guards had their hands full with just making him lie down in his bed once more.

“You do not understand! I am INVINCIBLE!” He laughed grandly, not even feeling the pain and fatigue of his body anymore. He kept struggling until Eva put her arms around him from behind and slowly pulled him back down.

“Shhh. Nox is not here yet. Rest and save your strength for when he attacks, alright?” She told him gently, her soft voice managing to calm him down.

“O-oh. Alright. If you say so, Eva. But you will wake me when he arrives, yes?” He looked at her with hopeful eyes, trusting her completely. He couldn’t afford missing the battle of the century, after all.

The blonde Cra merely nodded at him, smiling kindly as she stroked his hair. “I will remain at your side until you wake again or until Nox arrives so I can wake you. Whichever happens first.”

Hearing this, he let his muscles relax, leaning back into his pillow. Allowing himself to finally succumb to his tiredness, his eyelids eventually grew heavy.

“Thanks, Eva.” Was the last thing he said before he drifted off into sleep. His grip on her hand, however, was never lifted.

The Eniripsa sighed in relief and silently thanked Eva for resolving the situation before finally getting back to work. Now that he was asleep, treating him would go far quicker.

“You seem to have quite the power over that Iop.” She noticed with a knowing smile. “It’s impressive how easily you managed to calm him down where a bunch of royal guards struggled with even just containing him.”

“Naturally. He is _my_ Iop, after all.” Eva replied quite happily.

“Even the dumbest mule will obey after getting beat up enough.” Rubi casually said, still hanging at Dally’s waist.

With her eyes opening up wide from shock and her hair standing up from anger, she grabbed the demonic dagger and hissed. “Ruuuuuubiiiiiiii!”

The Eniripsa blushed as she finally seemed to understand the connection between Dally’s injuries and Eva, then looked away in shame. “Oh…so it’s that kind of relationship…”

“Nonononono! It really is not what you think!” Eva hastily tried to correct this misunderstanding. She showed her the Shushu dagger and pointed at it with her free hand. “This is a Shushu blade. You should never listen to anything it says in the first place!”

“But weren’t you the one who said you would break both his legs when he tried leaving you so he would never be able to leave again? Your words, sister, not mine.” Rubi said mischievously.

The Eniripsa couldn’t help but laugh nervously. “Ahaha, sounds like a complicated affair you have there, Lady Evangelyne. Your private life may not be my business, but still, as a doctor I must kindly ask of you to treat your love interests with a bit less…” She eyed Dally worriedly. “…well…murderous intend?”

“No, please! It’s not like that! I-I can explain!”

“Oh, don’t worry, I understand just fine. Some people just are into this kind of thing, I guess. I am just saying you should keep it to a moderate amount, that’s all.” She finished up on Dally and explained to Eva that she would check up on him again in an hour or two to resume the treatment if necessary. Then she bowed at her politely and left, leaving a dumbfounded Eva all to herself.

She just kept staring into the direction the healer had left, not quite sure what the hell had even just happened.

Rubi chuckled to himself. “Ah, did you see her expression as she left? A mixture of disgust and terror. Absolutely hilarious, I must say. Wouldn’t you agree, Evangelyne?”

Her expression became quite dark and scary which made Rubi question whether or not she could have been a demon herself.

“If my reputation drops because of your _hilarious_ joke, guess what else gets dropped into a flaming volcano?”

“Y-You wouldn’t dare!”

An evil smirk formed itself on her lips. “Well, if you change my image into one of a demon, I might as well just live up to the name, no?”

Eying her quite nervously, Rubi had to make the unfortunate realization that Dally had, perhaps, not been the only one he had to be afraid of. That Cra of his appeared to be quite a handful as well.

“…I will clear up the misunderstanding.” He eventually caved in under the pressure of her evil aura which vanished soon afterwards, being replaced by an angelic smile yet again as she patted his blade gently and approvingly.

“Good boy.”

Scary. Who would have thought humans could be this terrifying?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, you made it to the end of the chapter! Good job! Hope you enjoyed the ride so far.
> 
> Truth to be told, I had no idea how Shushu possession really works or whether it only works with Iops or not, but we saw various critters and bigger animals get possessed as well, so I figured it should be fine. I made use of my artistic liberty to decide that Eva's demon form would still be able to stay halfway rational and keep using bows. Made the scene more interesting that way, I think.
> 
> The bonus scenes at the end were just extras I came up with that I thought would be nice to include, yet felt like they weren't worth writing a full chapter about. They are just meant to be funny and slightly cute. I thought people might perhaps still like reading them even if they are rather short and mostly unrelated to the actual chapter. Tell me what you think. I could leave these out in the future if they feel out of place somehow.
> 
> Welp, that's it for today. See ya folks next time. I am still far from done here.


	5. Legendary

_This is what we came for_

_And we couldn't want it anymore_

_We can never turn back now_

_Got to leave it all on the floor_

_Been dreaming of the payoff_

_Though the struggles and the trade-offs_

_Fighting tooth and nail on the way up_

_Tell them the truth but they'd think it's just made up_

_I think they got it all wrong_

_We just gotta hold on_

_And on and on and on_

_'Cause we're gonna be legends_

_Gonna get their attention_

_What we're doing here ain't just scary_

_It's about to be legendary_

_Yea we're gonna be legends_

_Gonna teach 'em all a lesson_

_Got this feeling in our souls we carry_

_That it's about to be legendary_

_Eventually they're gonna know who's right_

_To make a stand you've got to win the fight_

_Can't stand the heat then just stay out the light_

_Or you might never make it out alive_

_You gotta live without a compromise_

_Let everybody hear your battle cry!_

**Legendary by Welshly Arms**

* * *

**Legendary**

Dally opened his eyes, slowly arising from the ground and still clearly feeling the smack that darn Xelor machine had planted on his face.

He tried catching his breath, yet the air around him felt spent, full of ashes and smelling of smoke. He ended up coughing more of it out again than he managed to inhale.

That accursed thing sure knew how to throw punches, he had to give it that. This must have been the first time in ages he had found a foe that could stand up to him and Rubi's combined strength. How truly terrifying.

He smirked.

How…wonderful! His heart leapt of joy, finally having encountered a true challenge. An opponent worthy of his caliber. Once he defeated it, surely everyone would be so happy, so proud of him. He would finally become the hero he had always wished to become. He laughed internally, realizing he might die any second if he got caught in one of these stasis blasts.

And yet he had never felt more  _alive_. His heart beat strongly in his chest, its rhythm creating a hymn of war meant to urge him to march forward. He decided to sing along, letting out a fierce and demonic battle cry which further encouraged him to defeat his enemy. His fists yearned to be rammed into that robot's body, tearing it apart bit by bit and his toes dug into the scorched earth beneath him, eager to run, kick, destroy.

Yes, the Iop inside him reveled. After all, they were born for battle, lived for conflict, died in glory.

And with this battle, he had finally found his purpose. It was him or that tin can. Life or death. Combat to the bitter end.

That thing had even made the huge mistake of turning its back on him, leaving itself wide open. His smirk grew even wider as he imagined jumping at that machine from behind, tearing it apart plate by plate. It was simple, it was effective, it was brutal, but best of all:

It was Iop. Hah, Master Goultard would be so proud if he could see him right now.

But then something happened, catching his attention. The Xelor construct halted after having been hit by a powerful magic arrow. Dally wasn't sure whether he should be proud of Eva for having stopped that thing or disappointed since he didn't get to stop it himself, only to quickly realize that neither was the case. The machine may have halted, but not due to being broken. No. It had halted to counter attack!

Slowly it raised one of its arms, then the other. They were canons, being aimed at new targets…he didn't need long to see who these new targets turned out to be. As if to respond to Eva's attack in kind, the machine begun charging its stasis weapons. Dally's jaw dropped at that realization. Eva and Amalia…they were wide open! Those stasis bombs had devastated an entire forest…he didn't need to be a particularly wise man to imagine what would be left of the girls if one of those were to hit them, heck, even just grazed them.

His legs began moving way before his mind had even registered the need for them to do so.

He leapt. With all the strength he could muster.

"Hey, hey, Dally-boy, you are jumping way too far. You are gonna miss!" Rubi tried to warn him, still thinking he was going for the machine's still wide-open back, but even Dally knew he would never be able to make it in time before it would shoot. And once it had, he would never be able to catch up to the blast. He needed to jump before that, or the girls' lives would be forfeit. Only then could he possibly make it. Save them.

"I know." Was all he could respond with.

"Then why? We could have caused some serious damage!"

"I am a knight, Rubi. Knights defend their princesses." Even before they defeated their foes. He knew that now.

"You can't mean…" Rubi followed his gaze and spotted the two girls being targeted by Razortime, then realized where exactly the redheaded Iop was trying to go. Opening up his eye wide in shock, he yelled: "Idiot! You will die! Not even you could withstand a stasis explosion head-on."

That was the moment he realized that Rubi was right, but instead of backing down in fear, he suddenly seemed to be even more eager to make it in time. Other people would have asked themselves why, but he knew very well that this might have been the moment he had waited for ever since he became an adventurer. His moment to shine. His chance to be a hero.

His shot at becoming a true legend.

He was not afraid of pain, had never feared death. And while he may have never actively sought it, either, he felt more than ready and willing to give his life to protect his blonde princess. Her smile was worth way more than anything else the world could have offered him, including the glory of having slain Nox' champion. Rather than being remembered as the man who felled Razortime, he would want to be remembered for protecting his beloved Cra from that thing, no matter the cost.

After all, what good was it to have glory in your life when said life had already lost all meaning? All the praise and respect in the world would never be enough to fill the void Evangelyne's absence would leave in his heart.

No, his heart still sang its song of war. Its strong heartbeat urging him to follow a clear path for him to take. There were no alternatives, no branch roads for him to choose. He just knew, with his entire being, that this simply had to be his fate. His destiny. And so he embraced it.

The machine took its shot, two blasts of purple death approaching. They were catching up quickly and he could tell there was no time to push Eva and Amalia aside. Heck, it would even be lucky if he actually landed in time to-

He frowned determinedly.

No, he  _would_  make it. At any cost. He had to. Letting out one more desperate battle cry, he dove down towards the ground as fast as he could. All his life he had dreamt of this moment. A moment where he could give all he had for something that was worth it. And now that he had finally gotten to that moment, he wouldn't allow himself to miss it for anything in the world. As long as he still drew breath, no one would be allowed to harm his Cra!  _No one!_

He landed moments before the impact, raising his big arms protectively before his princess who in turn tried to shield Amalia.

_He was a wall._

The violet death approached. He remained steadfast. Valiant.

_He was a shield._

A determined smirk formed itself on his lips once more as he awaited the blast fearlessly. The song his heart composed giving him strength and courage, inspired by his love for his dear Cra.

_He was INVINCIBLE!_

Then the blast collided with him like a tsunami hitting the tallest mountain. The explosion could be seen from miles away, as could the impact be felt by anyone in its vicinity, and yet he remained standing, a tower of pure strength, never even allowing the faintest ray of stasis energy to bypass him.

The feeling of receiving such an attack…was not at all how he had imagined it to be.

He saw nothing, heard nothing. For a short moment there was an unbelievable amount of pain, so much that it would normally push you into a severe state of madness, driving you insane, but even that was gone as soon as it had overcome him. And yet, it was not like it had faded like pain usually did. No, it had faded because  _everything_  was fading.

He felt  _nothing._  Neither Rubi's, nor his own strength. He couldn't even move a single muscle.

Eventually, as the light of the explosion had vanished and allowed at least his sight to return, he could barely register Eva talking to him from behind. She thanked him and urged him to leave with her. Relief overcame him from just hearing her melodic voice. That meant she was okay. He had managed to fulfill his mission. He had protected what was most important to him.

His height shrunk. He could no longer sense Rubi, so his size problem must have been because he had been separated from him somehow.

Eva urged him to snap out of it and follow her. They quite obviously had to go but as much as her wish was his command, he could no longer comply with his muscles now in open rebellion.

His legs had gotten weak, no longer able to stem his weight. He fell forward, alarming his princess who was now rushing to his side to catch him. At last he was able to see her once more, unharmed. Safe. Never in his life had he seen a more beautiful sight than the one before him. To see his Cra in perfect health already managed to ease up his worries. Now that he had visual confirmation of her survival, he had no regrets about anything. Everything he had done and had led him to this point in time…

It had been worth it.

Eva's eyes looked down on him with shock, worry. Sadness. It still felt slightly weird for him to be the reason for someone to look like that. Too used had he been to no one really giving a damn. To people disliking him so much to even be happy once he would be gone.

Being held by Eva's caring arms during his last moments in life felt almost surreal to him, but he knew it was no dream this time. Knowing she would be the last thing he would get to see made him happy. There was nothing he would have rather seen, except perhaps her smile.

However, despite his happiness over her feelings for him, he still disliked seeing her tears. He wished he still had the strength to tell her that there was no need to be sad for him. In fact, he wished he could tell her many more things. How relieved he was to see her unharmed. That she shouldn't cry for him for he did go out the way he had always wanted to. That he had no regrets about anything and would have thrown himself in front of her no matter the circumstances…

But alas, things were starting to go dark, his thoughts becoming nothing short of echoes in the ever-growing blackness of his mind. With what little of his strength he could still muster, he tried to tell her:

"I am not dying, Evangelyne. I am becoming a legend." It was his pathetic attempt to make her stop worrying, stop being sad. But this only made her eyes tear up even more. Typical. He never got it right with these things…

Her lips were moving, but he could barely make out the words. She was scolding him, begging him to pull himself together, her voice now sounding so far away, so distant.

The world was growing silent. His heart sang no more.

He took his last breath, still full of ashes, but also filled with the pleasant fragrance of Evangelyne. It was the sweetest scent he had ever taken in. So sweet in fact, he almost wished it wouldn't have to be his last.

He closed his eyes, feeling so horribly tired. Something wet hit his face and he could tell that it had to be Eva's tears as she held him closer in her arms, unwilling to let him go. Not even their warmth could protect him from the cold that surrounded him.

And then…

All of that ceased to be. He opened his eyes once more to realize he could move just fine, his limbs never having felt as light as they did right now. Neither had they ever looked as transparent. He got up from the ground only to realize his body still lied in Eva's arms for some weird reason. When he tried to gently touch her shoulder and ask her to not cry, she did not respond. He could not be seen, not be heard.

He was dead.

And now he got to see the aftermath of his demise. Eva crying without restraint, calling his name, urging him to wake from a slumber he could never be woken from again. He had never seen her being so devasted, not even when he had destroyed her bow.

He shook his head slowly, unable to accept this. No, this was not how it was supposed to be. In the stories, everyone had always praised the gallant knight. They had been inspired by his bravery, by his sacrifice. They had taken up their arms and faced their foe with renewed strength, confidence.

They had smiled.

But…but this…this wasn't at all how it had been supposed to be. Eva was heartbroken. Amalia just looked as if she had lost all hope. They were broken, defeated. He fell to his knees, staring at them in disbelief.

This was wrong!

And for the first time in all these years he finally realized that becoming a legend might have been a double-edged sword all along. Yes, his actions had been heroic and noble and yes, he might even be a legend now. But the stories had left out a crucial detail he had never thought about.

Namely the feelings of those the hero left behind…

No one would draw strength from his death.

No one would be inspired, no one would gain confidence.

No one would smile.

Would he have if any of them had died in his stead?

He looked at his hands with a weak smile, shaking his head at his own naivete. How could he have been so stupid? He had always been so obsessed with getting to this point, he had never stopped to think about the other side of the shiny medal he would be receiving. That there were people who would cry for him, mourn him, wished for him to live.

His eyes found their way back to Eva, forced to witness a future for her he had sworn himself to never let her experience in her life. But not only had he allowed this to happen, he had caused it himself. Again. He closed his eyes in guilt.

He had broken his vow. He had failed to protect her smile.

And that, somehow, felt even worse than dying had.

But even so, he struggled to find where he had screwed up this time. He clearly did not regret protecting her, not even giving up his life for her. It had been the only thing he could have done. The only thing that had felt right. Had he not done it, she and Amalia would be dead instead. And he would have never been able to live with himself either, had he chosen to let that happen instead.

So where did that put him? What exactly had he done wrong? What should he have done? He wished someone could tell him. His gaze traveled upwards, wondering if perhaps someone up there could give him the answer to his questions.

Perhaps there was no answer this time. Maybe he couldn't really have done anything to prevent this. If neither dying, nor letting Eva die had been a valid choice, perhaps he had done everything he could have by picking the option which had the slightly less devastating outcome? He wondered if it was alright to tell himself that, at least.

Suddenly, his already quite weightless body grew even lighter, completely freed from gravity's restraints at last. An unrecognizable force pulled him upwards, gradually increasing the distance between him, Eva and Amalia. The thought saddened him, but he also knew that there was little he could do at this point. He was part of the mortal realm no longer. It was time for him to enter the realm of legends at last.

It was weird how much he had used to yearn for this but now that it actually happened, he suddenly felt as if he hadn't quite been ready. As if there were still plenty of things he should have done instead. As strange as it sounded, he thought that, perhaps, becoming a legend could have waited for a bit longer so he could have spent just a bit more time with Eva instead. But there was little use thinking that now, was there?

As he gradually ascended into the heroic realm, he passed the weapons of legends past, having found their place in the hall of legends. He silently wondered if his one was among them now as well. Would Rubi have liked being here with him? He sure would have deserved it. Heck, for what the Brotherhood had done, they all should have been here with him. It felt wrong coming here all by himself.

Eventually he got to see his destination. His sword. It was the greatest among swords, implying that he had truly become one of the greatest legends of them all. Pride and happiness flooded his heart. He had made it. He had proved his worth, entered the legend. He wished his friends could see this. He wished Eva could see this. The happiness in his heart turned into sadness.

So this would be his new home. The place where legends went. He had always hoped he could meet all the legends of the past, exchange stories over a nice meal and perhaps even spar together sometimes. All of that had only been a stone's throw away.

So why wasn't he happy, he wondered. What lied before him was certainly breathtakingly beautiful. A dream come true. All his life he had wished to come here one day and now he had earned it at long last.

It was not like he wasn't enjoying it at all, of course. A part of him cheered and rejoiced…but there was something that held him back still. Don't get him wrong, he didn't regret dying. He would have died a thousand times over to save that which he held dear. It was the way of the Iop to always give it everything you've got and so he had done just that. That part had felt right and clearly was not the problem.

The  _actual_  problem was not his death but the pain it had caused. How could he leave his friends behind now that he knew how much they would mourn him? How could he leave Eva behind, knowing of the tears she would shed for him? No, this wasn't right. He did not belong here. Not yet. He still had duties to fulfill, a Cra to protect.

He wanted to go back.

Turning around with a regretful expression, he looked down on the mortal realm he was leaving. His hand reached out to it, desperately wishing for a way, clutching at a straw that somehow could end up sending him back. He didn't care why or how it would happen. All he needed was for it to simply do. He had to get back and fix the mess he had caused, didn't want things to end like this.

He still had to protect Eva's smile. He had vowed to, hadn't he?

He closed his eyes, sending out his deepest wish, hoping for a miracle, only opening them up again in surprise once he actually felt someone taking hold of his hand in the end. And of all people it could have been, it ended up being…

"Rubilax…?"

"Where do you think you are going, buddy? Your time has not yet come."

He didn't even have the time to express his shock properly before the great demon just pulled him back down with him, rapidly and forcefully dragging him into the abyss once more. Even after they crashed into the ground, their descend never stopped, forcing them deeper underground where he eventually ended up being shoved into a tiny place, a prison. No longer could he move his body…all he could do was look and speak, and even that felt so hard to do…

He felt weak, tired.

But his heart sang once again. Faint, calm. Barely audible. But it did.

Was this it, he wondered, his small miracle he had wished for?

Before him, he saw something appearing out of thin air. Dozens of lights recreating something that looked very familiar…until he eventually realized that it was…him? And yet it wasn't since he quite obviously was looking at himself from a different point of view…no…could it be that he was still a ghost? But that made no sense…!

He…no, his body opened his eyes, looking down on him once it had gotten up. That was the moment Dally realized how small he had become for some reason. Then he was being picked up and held before his body as it now smirked at him.

"Not bad, eh?" It was Rubilax' voice he heard coming out of his old body's mouth. Now that he rested in Rubi's hand, Dally also finally understood why he could no longer move. He was inside Rubi's prison for some reason. They had switched places! But why…unless…

"Rubilax! You…you saved me!" He realized suddenly, getting overwhelmed by his feelings of relief and gratitude. His old pal had given him the miracle he had so desperately wished for. Now he could…he could…

Weird…what…did he want to do…again? He felt dizzy, his thoughts spinning endlessly around his…wait, he no longer had a head, had he?

He could barely concentrate, his mind constantly trying to slip away, being pulled away by some weird force he couldn't even describe. His prison felt small, yet so vast. His mind oppressed, yet so free. He remembered things, only for them to slip away again soon after, knew that there was something important he needed to do, only to forget what it was before the thought could form clearly enough in his mind for him to grasp.

How…confusing his new existence turned out to be. But even so, he still felt happy for some reason, even if he couldn't quite tell why.

Meanwhile, Rubi had eyed him in disbelief, shouting: "Me? Save you? Are you nuts? Why would I…I mean, I just…!" Failing to come up with an acceptable reason, Rubi ended up mumbling awkwardly, avoiding to look into Dally's eye. That was all the former Iop had to hear, really.

"Thanks, Rubi." He expressed his heartfelt gratitude, glad to have made such a good friend in Rubilax.

"Don't thank me, you idiot! I did not do it to save you. I just wanted your body! In fact, now that I have it, I'll just…I'll…!" He hastily replied as if trying to find an excuse. However, when even Dally could see through your lie, it basically already told stories of how bad of a liar you really had to be.

"What, you will kill me? After having just saved me? Come on, Rubi…" Dally said, his eye looking at him knowingly. This only seemed to give Rubi the rest as he angrily rammed the blade into the ground, screaming furiously:

"Shut uuuuuup!"

His former guardian laughed amusedly, but eventually grew drowsy and closed his eye sleepily.

"Dunno why, but I feel tired, Rubi. Is that normal…?" He yawned, or at least uttered the sound of doing so.

"No, but what could ever be normal when it comes to you." Rubi grumbled annoyedly. "You just came back from the dead, so being tired is pretty much a given. I don't expect you to run around as carefree as you once have for quite some while." He noticed how Dally was no longer listening, apparently sleeping, so he sighed and put him back into the sheath that once used to be his own. Just what the hell was he going to do now with this weak and useless pile of flesh Dally had the audacity to call a body?

He folded his arms in front of his chest, thinking. Dally was still way too weak to regain his old body. Even if Rubi gave it back right now, Dally would be too powerless to move. Unable to even eat, he would just wither away and die again, which meant Rubi needed to stay in this flesh suit for at least long enough that Percy could actually recover enough to pull his own weight again.

So, what would he be doing in the meantime? He  _could_  go back to Dally's friends but he really didn't want to. In the worst case, they would just accuse him off possessing his body and try to exorcise him with force. At best he would have to suffer through a group hug and maybe even having to deal with a clingy Evangelyne. Urgh, on second thought, maybe  _that_ was actually the worst case.

He frowned. Not to mention that it would send the wrong signals. He was still a demon. He didn't do kindness. He was evil. He was dangerous. He hadn't saved Dally because he liked the fool, no. He had  _really_  just wanted the body. To be free. Don't look at him like that! It was the truth, okay? The truth!

What for, you ask? Well…hmmm.

"Think, Rubilax." He told himself. "The first time you have tasted freedom after all these years. What could you do?" Granted, it wasn't true freedom…he was still stuck in a squishy body, but at least he could move around, no? He smirked. That's more than his puny brethren stuck in their prisons could claim for themselves now, could they?

That's it, he thought. He could finally show them who was the boss around here. After all these years of having to endure their disrespect and belittling behavior, he would end up ruling them all. Back home, Rushu was boss, but here? Here, he was the king of all Shushus. And a king needed a kingdom.

He looked down on Dally hanging at his waist. "Now you take a good nap there, Dally-o. I am going to have some fun while you are out of commission."

Taking his first step forward, he couldn't help but laugh grandly, ready to have his revenge. This time, he wouldn't let anyone look down on him. He would get the respect he deserved. One way or the other.

He smirked evilly. It was payback time, and let him tell you: It was going to be, how would Dally say? Oh right.

Legendary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one down. Truth to be told, I struggled a bit with this one as it is a bit hard to even depict Dally not being overjoyed to have died a hero. As a result he might seem a bit OOC here but I didn't want to scrap all of it for that reason alone. It was a very important event for Tristeva so I wanted to include it at all costs. I adored this scene in the animation and I think this will lead to me not being satisfied with my own depiction of it no matter what I do with it. When something already was good, it becomes hard capturing all of that goodness with words, after all.
> 
> Therefore, I decided to not dwell on this one for too long. After all, when I can't reach the point I would be satisfied with it, there just is no point of revising it over and over and over again. I just hope people will be able to at least enjoy it somewhat and look forward for the next one, which would be Eva's side of this whole ordeal. And hey, maybe it's not as bad as I make it out to be and I just end up setting my standards a bit too high here.
> 
> Anyway, hope to see you all next time as well. Until then, take care.


	6. Chasing Ghosts

**Chasing ghosts**

They had been had.

Nox had tricked them all, creating a huge diversion so he could simply teleport in from the rear, effectively bypassing the entire Sadida army to cut right to the tree of life.

She had realized something had been wrong, but by then it had already been too late to stop it.

And now they, the Brotherhood of the Tofu, were their last line of defense.

They were trying their hardest to stop Nox and his champions, but she wouldn't lie.

Things were looking quite grim here.

That weird stasis-powered machine of Nox was tremendously strong. So strong, that not even Dally's demonic form was a match for it. All they could hope of achieving here was to stall for time until Yugo and Adamai would hopefully manage to tear that great cloak apart from the inside before it reached the most sacred tree of the Sadida kingdom and drained it of its wakfu. She threw a worried glance over at Amalia who was kneeling at her side, exhausted.

If Nox got to that tree, Amie, the king and the entire kingdom would be…

She gulped. That mustn't happen. It absolutely mustn't.

The cursed machine stepped over Dally's unconscious body, advancing once more. Anger took hold of her heart. That bastard Nox thought he could hurt her friends, threaten to kill Amie? Not on her watch! She had been the best recruit in her unit, had aced all training courses, had earned her position. She was the princess' bodyguard, for Cra's sake. That thing wanted a piece of her? She would send it right to the scrappy.

She gathered all of her power into one arrow. A shot so powerful, it wouldn't be weird to assume that it could probably even rip beasts apart. Never before had she tried gathering so much energy into one projectile. It went against her teachings of always trying to be efficient, never using excessive force, always conserving your energy to keep in the fight for the longest time possible. But if she had learnt anything from Dally, then that sometimes you just had to go all out. This was such a moment. When facing against overwhelming odds, you couldn't afford holding back at all.

As if understanding her sentiment, Amalia grabbed the end of her bow, offering her what remained of her magic as well. Now the arrow grew even stronger than it already was. So strong, in fact, Eva could barely even still contain it for much longer. And so she let go of it with a confident smirk.

"Go on, destroy this for me."

Her arrow shot forward with speed so fast, you would have risked missing it if you had blinked, hitting the construct with the force of a comet. The explosion went off right at its head, just where she had aimed at. Bullseye, as expected of her. That should have given that unholy construct the re-

She heard the robot making its weird mechanical noise. Her eyes opened up wide.

No, it couldn't be!

She strained her eyes, trying to make out the machine in between the smoke of the explosion she had just caused. That thing could not be still standing. It could not!

Yet, when the smoke finally got blown away by the wind, there it stood. Razortime, without even the slightest dent. Her jaw dropped in absolute disbelief, watching helplessly as the construct merely raised its cannon-arms at her and Amalia, charging its next shot.

This was…impossible…!

Her strongest attack, combined with Amalia's strength…did nothing?

Having to face such an overwhelming strength, Eva's resolve crumbled. Her confidence waned. Whatever hope she may have held in her heart had vanished and, in its stead, despair took a firm grip of it.

When the robot took its shot at her and Amalia, Eva's mind screamed at her to get away, to at least dodge or push Amalia aside. But she couldn't. Her morale was shattered, her body immobilized, no longer listening at her own commands. As she was forced to helplessly watch the stasis beam's rapid approach, she finally understood that it was over. They couldn't win.

They were done for. This was the end.

She closed her eyes and braced for impact. Shortly after, she  _heard_ the beams making contact, even  _felt_  the shockwave they produced. But strangely enough…there was no pain…at all?

Visibly confused, she opened one eye, not even sure herself what she was expecting to see before her. However, she could not believe her eyes when she saw Dally's tall figure standing protectively before her, shielding her and Amalia with his bare body alone. It was pure madness to even attempt to do that and yet here he was, doing it anyway, succeeding even. It was almost as if nothing was impossible for that big redheaded Iop.

And seeing him like this, Eva, for the first time, actually started to believe that, perhaps, his talk about being able to achieve  _anything_  he set his mind on…could actually have been true all along. Maybe Dally really could…do the impossible?

A spark of hope returned to her heart, inspired by his resolve. He really was something else, wasn't he? It had been him who had rekindled the fire in their hearts when they had felt crushed after Nox' trickery, him that had led the assault with a valiant battle cry, him who always rushed to their aid when they felt overwhelmed by something. In a sense, you could say Dally was the shining light illuminating the way. Their personal beacon of hope they could count on when everything else seemed lost.

Well, at least to her he was. It was slightly funny how he always went on and on about how he wanted to become a hero, never realizing that to her, he already was the greatest one of them all.

How truly ironic it was that the one guy she initially thought would be the most unreliable member of their group eventually ended up being the one she depended on the most these days.

That the one she originally assumed would be nothing but a liability would become one of their greatest assets.

That the guy she was irritated about so much at the start ended up being the one to steal her heart.

Once this battle was over, she would definitely tell him that. She knew he would probably never shut up about it once she would, but it didn't matter either way. Even if his big ego would end up annoying her, she still loved him and wanted to see him being happy about himself. After all, the least she could do for him after he had bestowed so much happiness upon her, was to give some of it back to him as well. He deserved happiness. Perhaps he deserved it the most out of all of them, even.

But now was not the time. They had to go, use the opportunity he had given them to retreat. She knew he wouldn't like the idea of it, but it was the right thing to do. They had stalled for as much as they could…now it was up to Yugo and Adamai to destroy the clock from within. She was surprised to see Dally return to his human form even before she had said anything. Could it be that he realized that it was time to leave as well? How uncommon for him, even if very welcome.

With a grateful smile, she humored him: "Thanks for the rescue, valiant knight, but we have to keep going."

She had hoped he would have simply turned around with his goofy grin and told her that he was right behind her, had realistically just expected him to turn around only to complain about him having to leave the battle of the century with a childish pout…but Dally did neither of that. He just kept standing motionlessly before them as if he hadn't even heard her. That was very odd, but Eva figured he was probably just struggling with getting over his own code of honor, perhaps even considering entering the battle once more to not be called a coward later. That's why she addressed him again, with more urgency this time. They had no time for this.

"Come on, Dally!"

This time he actually moved, yet not in a way she had expected him to. He fell on his knees, defeated.

Her eyes opened up wide in shock.

No…this couldn't be! It couldn't! Dally was unbeatable. He always got back up again, no matter how often you brought him down! There was nothing in this world that could fell that big idiot of hers.

She quickly rushed to his side, catching him before he could hit the ground. He just needed to catch his breath, right? Right!? Come on, Dally, shrug it off like you always did…

Please!

When she saw him offering her a weak smile, she allowed herself to hope. This would be the moment he would tell her that it was nothing. That he was only kidding. That it was nothing but a cruel and unfunny joke she would later beat him up for.

But he didn't. When his lips finally moved, words did leave his mouth, yet they weren't the ones she had been waiting for.

"I am not dying Evangelyne. I am becoming a legend."

The tears she had tried to hold back were now freely flowing, not willing to be held captive any longer. He was the kind of man that would never lose hope even in the direst situation and yet he…had simply given upon on life. When even he, her shining beacon of hope, had no more hope of surviving this situation, that already told volumes about how grave it really was.

He really was dying.

And that realization alone made her feel as if she was dying, too. Or at least something inside her did.

No, she absolutely refused to accept this. He himself had shown her that he could do the impossible, so why should he not be able to overcome this as well? Somewhere in the back of her mind, the faint voice of reason told her she was merely being in denial but she told it to shut up. This was Dally. Her undefeatable Dally. There was no way he would be dying. Not him. Not now.

"Enough of your stupid jokes! Now is not the time." She cried desperately. "I know it takes more than that to defeat an Iop brain like you. Please, Dally!"

But despite her begging him to not leave her like this, he still didn't respond. And she soon realized he never would with his eyes now closed as he had fallen into eternal slumber.

Nox's bastion passed them effortlessly, merely striding past them as if it was on a simple walk. But Eva barely even registered it doing so, her world already having seemed to have stopped as if the great clock itself had frozen time somehow. She hopelessly kept calling her fallen knight's name in a vain attempt to bring him back to her despite knowing that it was no use. And yet she refused to give up for doing so would have meant accepting that…accepting that…

Dally really was gone.

She looked down on him, sobbing and holding him close. He still had a smile on his lips, looking so peaceful and content, you couldn't blame anyone for thinking he was merely sleeping in her arms, enjoying a well-earned rest. Oh how she wished this could be true.

Behind her, the war machine's heavy steps could be heard as it approached her. Like she would care. It had already taken Dally from her...what else could it take from her at this point? She barely even noticed how that metallic monster had aimed its weapon at her again, seeking to finish the job.

She knew she had to get up. Run away. Safe herself.

But she felt tired. So very tired. Tired of it all. And as she looked down on her sleeping knight, she asked herself if it would be all that bad if she just joined him. Reuniting with him again through their pleasant dreams. It sure did sound more appealing to her than staying awake, forced to life the nightmare that was a life without him.

That's right. How could she ever hope of returning to her old life now that he had already become such a fundamental part of it? Without him, everything just fell apart, just like how taking away a card on a card house would cause the whole construct to crash. There no longer was an "old life" for her to return to and that abomination behind her had already taken her future as well. With no way back and no way forward, perhaps ending it here was the correct road to take. Even if that road was just another dead end in on itself.

She held Dally close as she felt the stasis energy gathering behind her, death's cold hand already hovering over her shoulder. She did not know where legends went, but if Dally had gone there, then she would follow. She would follow him anywhere. He was her Iop, after all.

"Let's become legends together." She thus decided. There was no fear. No second thoughts. Only determination. She was a soldier. This was a battlefield. If anything, this was where she should find her end, after all.

Now that all her other options were no longer available, anyway…the future she had momentarily allowed herself to dream of, a fate so very unlike the one she had originally imagined for herself to come true, had already been taken from her. The images of her being with Dally, seeing the world together, fighting together, laughing together, hugging…kissing…

All of it merely visions of a future that was not to be. A possibility she had been robbed of the moment she had learnt of it. A cruel joke of the gods who had played her for a fool, made her witness a piece of bliss, gave her a taste of happiness beyond her greatest expectations, only to rip it away from her hands the very next second. They must have had a good chuckle up there in Inglorium, huh. Just another devout follower of Cra thinking she could have a good life with one of Iop's soldiers. Hah, good one, right? She would bet they probably laughed at her tears. Yet another foolish mortal dancing on the palm of their hands. No more.

To hell with the gods. To hell with her duty. To hell with everything.

She was so done with it all.

And yet, the end she had sought, the first thing she truly felt she had decided on her own with no manipulation from the divine.

It never came.

Instead, Nox' abominable champion was hit head on by a new strange machine that had shot out of the ground before it could have finished her off. She would later learn that it had been Ruel who had finally joined the battle as well, albeit late.

Far too late. Her thoughts grew dark, full of anger and spite. So this was it, huh? The gods would continue their mockery of her even now. They took everything from her, made her turn her back on them and then even prevented her from joining her love in death. She looked up into the sky angrily, still with tearful eyes. Well, Cra? Was this what you wanted to see? Were you properly entertained?

But as usual. No response. Of course not. It was not like Cra had ever bothered answering her prayers anyway. To that goddess, Eva was nothing more but a chess piece. At best, a bit of entertainment, at worst, not even worth her attention. Realizing her place, Eva merely lowered her head once more like a good pawn, crying silently. She could decide nothing, change nothing. If the gods willed it, she would live, if they didn't, she would die.

As if to prove their point, Dally's body soon started to glow and fade from existence, robbing her from the chance of even just saying goodbye to him properly. All she could do was helplessly watch es he was dissolved into light, never to be seen again. Was this what happened to legends? Or had the gods just sent another message? Heck if she knew. The only thing she understood was that she was here and Dally was not. In his stead, a gaping void had taken his place in her heart. A void that she would have to close, yet would never be able to truly fill again.

\---+---

The fight against Nox had continued on afterwards, but Eva had not really registered much of it to be honest. All she remembered was that at one point she had felt as if she had seen Nox win, only to feel as if she was living her life in reverse shortly after. Amalia, who she had seen die shortly after Dally, drained of her Wakfu by Nox and turned into nothing but a lifeless tree, had luckily been restored to her original state. Dally, however, never had as much luck. Victory over Nox was declared shortly after, as the clock had merely fallen apart, seemingly by itself.

And just like that, the battle had concluded in victory.

Yet she hadn't felt victorious at all. If anything, she still felt as if she had suffered a crushing defeat.

The people of the Sadida kingdom had cheered, rejoiced and eventually also celebrated their victory. As a member of the brotherhood of the Tofu, she had naturally been invited as well, even stood at the center of attention, but being surrounded by so many happy faces, people smiling and singing when she felt like curling up and crying, had caused something inside her to shift. She had ended up leaving the celebrations early and abruptly before she could have done and said things she would have regretted later.

For she was angry. So very angry. At everything and everyone.

At Nox for having attacked in the first place.

At Yugo and Adamai for not having defeated him sooner so they could have reversed time far enough to bring Dally back.

At Ruel for having arrived too late and denying her the chance to be with Dally in death.

At Master Joris for  _effortlessly_ destroying Nox' champion where they had struggled so immensely to even just stall it. Where had that little gnome been all this time!?

At the gods who, again, had done nothing to help them. You would have thought at least Sadida would have felt the need to protect his people from a fate worse than death. Guess not.

At the people of Sadida who could be happy and cheerful where she could only be angry and gloomy.

At Dally for having made her fall in love with him in the first place. Knowing how miserable she felt now, maybe it would have been better to go with her original plan and never even bother with love. Too late now, though, now that her heart was a wreck.

And last but not least, she was angry at herself for blaming them all in the first place despite knowing full well that none of them, aside from Nox, had truly been at fault here. They all had done their best, had all risked their lives. Of course they should be happy and celebrate after all this. Even if she just could not.

However, with no one to direct her anger towards, her bottled up emotions had no way of manifesting. She wanted to grief but did not know how. She felt like crying, yet had already shed all the tears her body was willing to produce. She felt like seeking revenge, yet had no target to exact it against with Razortime already destroyed and Nox defeated. She wanted to find closure regarding Dally's death, yet didn't even have a body to bury. She was stuck, in every possible way. As if Nox had cursed her with an endless temporal loop she could no longer escape from.

As a result, her senses dulled. In an attempt to endure her own emotions she could not vent, she chose to become numb to them instead, walking around stoically and performing actions as if on auto-pilot. Her vision had lost color, her hearing became dull, as if she was submerged deep under water. She ate the bare minimum, drank the bare minimum and only spoke if directly addressed, usually in short sentences. She had entered maintenance mode.

This ended up worrying her friends, especially Amalia, greatly. They repeatedly tried cheering her up, consoling her. With little success. In the end, Eva knew her wounds could not be fixed with words, only time, if at all. Even so, she was thankful for their sentiment regardless and as a result, learned to smile again, even if those ended up being mostly fake. She was never sure if her friends could tell or not, but at the very least, they had started giving her more space after she had started looking more alive, even if, deep down, she still felt dead inside.

Things got better, though, after most of the rebuilding had been done. King Oakheart eventually got around to create a magnificent statue in Dally's image which should serve as a memorial for the fallen hero that had so selflessly given his life in the battle to defend a kingdom that wasn't even his. Seeing this, Eva finally started feeling emotions again. There was gratitude towards the king for honoring Dally, amazement at the beautiful way it had been formed and placed, solace at seeing all the flowers that people kept bringing here to thank their hero, realizing she wasn't mourning his loss all by herself, and she was slightly happy for Dally himself, knowing he got what he would have wanted. A grand statue in his name. She just wished he could be here to see it with her.

But most of all, she finally managed to find a feeling here she had missed for weeks. A way to be close to her knight. There never had been a body to bury, never a grave to visit. With this, she finally had a place she could properly mourn Dally at. Here, she could find the peace her heart had desperately sought, yet never found.

This was what she had needed, she realized. And for the first time in many weeks, she could actually offer a genuine smile, even shed tears again. Noticing this, everyone around her was relieved as well.

She ended up visiting Dally's statue daily, spending most of her time there, even. By the fourth day she had visited him, she had already found a small bench placed in front of it, courtesy of the king who had noticed her fondness of the statue. The gesture had warmed her heart she had previously assumed to have become frozen solid. As she took a seat there, able to look at the statue in all its glory, she realized that her heart still hurt, clearly missing her valiant knight, but for the first time after his death, she felt alive again. Not happy, and most certainly still far from accepting, but at least able to find the strength to continue living, even going as far as finding a new purpose for her life.

See, if Dally wanted to be a legend so desperately, she would see to it that the whole world got to know it. She would be the one to write it down and spread it around, let everybody know the legend of the redheaded warrior! Just as he would have wanted.

She would make him immortal, even if only in memory.

And thus, the following months were dedicated to writing as well as distributing the legend of her lovely knight, soon to be known worldwide. Most of the work had been done in front of the statue, given how the closeness with Dally she could sense there simply made writing the story easier. It was almost as if the statue itself gave her strength just like the real deal had used to. The result of that was that she would hardly ever leave its side, sometimes even sleeping there.

Naturally this had caused nasty rumors about her to spread. Some people started calling her the shrine maiden of the redheaded warrior or the guardian of the Iop which were a few of the…nicer titles. But there were also those that called her the crazy witch of the forest that could summon and talk to ghosts. Some especially nasty ones even claimed she would be eating any child foolish enough to go near her. Just because she had forgotten to bring lunch once and her stomach had started growling while some brats had been playing near her. It was just one time!

She didn't particularly mind, though. People always talked. Let them talk, she thought. Not that it mattered. She was just content to have found a new purpose, a new mission to occupy her mind with. Otherwise she would just go back to lamenting the loss of her lost knight…

However, she wondered if all these rumors hadn't eventually ended up getting to her, after all. For one day, the so-called witch that could speak to ghosts…actually ended up hearing the voice of one. And not just any ghost, no. THE ghost. The one and only Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove. She didn't even know whether she should be worried or happy to hear his sweet voice once more. She couldn't help but notice it was mostly happiness she felt, though.

But that was a given. Who would not be happy to hear the voice of the man you loved after having missed it for months? It wouldn't even matter what he said, she would already rejoice at some random words.

And well, that's what it turned out to be, anyway. Most of the time she thought she could make out her name, sometimes even more. There were occasions where she thought he was asking her to come find him, and there were also times where he just tried to console her, telling her that she should not be sad and that she wasn't turning crazy. All of that hadn't really been easy to understand, though. Rather than a clear voice, it had just ended up being sound she seemed to somehow filter out of the rustling of the leaves around her or the gurgling sound a nearby stream produced. It was easy to just assume she was imagining things, her overworked mind starting to hear sounds it wished were there.

And at first, she actually believed just that, choosing to ignore the voice as just another illusion her imagination produced for her. However, rationality was one thing, her heart an entirely different one. Where logic told her she shouldn't listen, that it couldn't be true, her heart simply didn't care. It had yearned to hear his voice again and so it had urged her to keep her ears sharp, listening in on everything around her, always hoping to catch his voice despite her mind's objections.

It didn't come to her every day. Sometimes there were several days without any word from Dally only to have him speak to her just as she was about to start believing she had just imagined things. With time, though, the voice appeared more frequently and became clearer. No longer sounding like it came from the trees and wind around her, but actually coming from the real person himself. As if he was standing right next to her!

The clearer the voices became, the more excited she started to get. It eventually got to the point where she wouldn't even have minded if it had turned out to be just her mad delusions. So what if she was crazy? At least it allowed her to hear Dally, right? It was her personal miracle in on itself. That was hardly the end of that, though. As the voice became clearer, so did the message it tried to convey become understandable, too. Dally's voice wasn't merely here to chat, it was asking for help. And if he was asking for help, he had to be reachable. Still in this world.

She could feel her heart skipping a beat as hope started growing roots in it once more.

He could be…alive!

Alive!

Of course she had informed her friends of her find as soon as possible, but, unfortunately, they hadn't believed her at all. While that had disappointed her, she still could hardly blame them, realizing how it must have sounded. Naturally they had tried reasoning with her, told her that Dally was dead and she would have to accept that, hard as it may be. But she hadn't listened. The damage had already been done. That glimmer of hope her valiant knight had planted back into her heart had sprouted and this time, it wouldn't die. She would do as he had asked of her. She would go out there and find her missing Iop, even if she had to do so on her own. It didn't matter where he was. As long as he was alive, she would find him.

If he was on the tallest mountain, she would climb it.

If he was on the bottom of the sea, she would dive into it.

If he was high in the sky, she would fly up there.

And if he was deep underground, she would dig for as long as it took.

To hold him in her arms again, no price was too high, no distance too far and no foe too strong.

She ordered her mount to halt as she took one last glance at Sadida castle, remembering how Amalia had told her to not waste her time chasing ghosts. Then she smirked with a simple shrug. What was so bad about chasing ghosts? After all, wasn't she the crazy witch that communed with them? If there were ghosts, wouldn't  _she_  be the one you would expect to go and chase them? If she was right, it would change  _everything_ , if not…

She shook her head determinedly.

No. She was right. Definitely. Dally was alive and out there. She  _knew_  it.

When she would eventually come back here, it would be with her lovely knight at her side. Crazy they had called her, hah! She would show them crazy. She would show them all. Just you see.

"Hnnng…wait a second…this isn't Yugo's room. Where the hell am I?" The demonic map in her hands mumbled worriedly as it woke up from its slumber. Eva simply smiled at it.

"Sorry, but I borrowed you for a bit. We two are going on a quest to find Dally."

Skribble was obviously not sharing Eva's enthusiasm as was seen by his disgusted face. "Eurgh, wasn't that the one who once used me as a handkerchief to clear his nose? Pass."

Hearing this, Eva merely eyed the map darkly, an evil smirk already on her lips. "Want to be used as toilet paper instead?"

Skribble's frown immediately vanished as he forced himself to offer a polite smile instead. "That way, milady." The road appeared on the map shortly after.

"See, that wasn't so hard." She told him as she rolled him up again to put him away. Shortly after, she ordered her dragosteed to move as fast as its feet could take it.

"Wait for me, Dally. I am coming for you." She said with a determined expression.

And just like that, she was off into the distance.

Chasing ghosts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This concludes the tragic scene of Dally's death. I've watched the scene so many times for reference but it never stopped giving me goose bumps. I just really love it and could watch it over a thousand times without it ever getting old. I am such a sucker for tragedy, haha.
> 
> I don't think Eva is supposed to remember what happened in the first timeline that ends up getting reversed, seeing as none of them seemed to have remembered that Nox' clock had already passed them by once, only to be behind them again, but who cares. I made her remember. Like I would miss out on the deliciously tragic scene of her being ready to follow Dally into death. Nuh-uh. Sue me if you want. Watch me care.
> 
> Well, with that out of the way, we can move onto Season 2 events. I have a few scenes in mind, but if you would like specific ones, feel free to ask. Maybe I could do something about that.
> 
> With that being said, I am happy to hear from you, as always. See ya all next chapter for more Tristeva. :D


	7. Identity Crisis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, folks. Sorry that this took so long. Having to be a productive and working member of society is such a drag. Why can't life merely let me ship all day long? D:
> 
> Anyway, this one was a bit problematic for me because it involved a lot of rewriting scenes straight from the animation which, obviously, is neither much fun to write nor to read. I struggled a lot with making the unchanged scenes a bit more readable by adding a few things here and there and changing up the dialogue ever so slightly, but in the end, there is still a lot of recycled stuff in here. I played with the idea of merely leaving out everything I had simply copied from the animation but eventually decided against it, thinking "Now that I have already written this stuff down, I might as well post it in case anyone might be interested."
> 
> To be fair, I don't think it's a total waste of time to read all of it, as I have at least tried to make it presentable and made cuts to stuff I deemed absolutely unnecessary, but I won't judge you if you decide for yourself that you are just gonna skim through the parts that seem too familiar already. But rest assured, there REALLY ARE original scenes somewhere in here. There are, okay? Trust me.
> 
> You will notice there is a lot of Rubilax in this chapter. I think that's justified since Rubilaxia was not only a major thing for Tristeva, but Rubi's development as well. Considering how he will end up living with the Percedal family later on, I figured it wouldn't hurt giving him a bit of spotlight right now. I may or may not do his character justice, but I like my version of him at least.

**Identity Crisis**

Rubilax frowned as he allowed his head to rest on his left hand, his other hand tapping away on the armrest of the new throne he had created for himself. The walls were adorned with Shushus he had captured and hung up there like trophies on display. The fruits of his labor he had carefully reaped over the last passing months.

A kingdom he had meant to create and so he had built one, gave it a name, even! Glorious Rubilaxia, a kingdom built by Shushus for Shushus. And yet…

…he was still not acknowledged. His brethren, rather than bow before his might and glory…would rather cut his throat the moment he were to free them. And so he wouldn't. He wasn't suicidal, after all.

So it still hadn't been enough, eh? Building a kingdom, gathering various Shushus…to get respected by his brethren, he had to do more. Find something that would make them be  _really_  impressed with him. But what…?

He growled angrily, a bitter thought manifesting in his mind. The realization that, to them, it might never be enough. That no matter what he did, he would still never belong. The thought alone was sickening, pissing him off.

And that was far from the only problem he had…

His gaze went upwards to a certain sword prison that currently held his former guardian, hanging right above his throne.

Percedal.

The guy used to sleep away most of the day, but lately he's been awake almost all the time. A sign that he had almost completely recovered. It was time to return his body to him soon. To be completely honest, Rubi wouldn't miss this weak and pathetic meat suit of a body for even just a second. It was soft and needed food, water, sleep…not to mention it kept hurting whenever he hit something, especially when it was his little toes. Those could ache for days on end if they wanted to, as he had made the unfortunate realization.

But you see, even though he wanted nothing more but to get rid of this annoyance of a body, he still couldn't just give it back now, could he? What kind of message would that send to the others? He was a Shushu. Prime evil. He didn't do kindness, much less save the life of a puny human. If he restored Dally, it would mean the end of his relationship with his brothers and sisters. If they hated him now, they surely would never forgive him for doing something as anti-Shushu as saving a human.

His gaze travelled downwards again broodingly. Did he  _really_  care whether they hated him or not? Heck no, he didn't. He didn't even like them himself. They were loud, annoying and disrespectful. He wouldn't hesitate to throw half of them into the ocean and watch them slowly sink to the bottom of the sea. He might even add some weights to some of the especially feisty ones so he would never have to see their ugly faces again in his life. The other half he would only bear as long as they would continue to be useful to him. Like Shadofang. She was a bitch, don't get him wrong, but she was a  _useful_  bitch.

Otherwise she would have probably been the first to get a free trip to the bottom of the ocean a long time ago…

But still…even though he hated their presence at least as much as they hated his, to cut ties with them was something that could never be undone. As much as he was hated right now, he still  _technically_  belonged to the group. The thought of belonging somewhere, even if it was this sorry excuse of a family, was somewhat comforting. He wasn't sure if he was ready to burn that bridge for Dally, even when he felt more comradeship during his travels with that redheaded idiot than he had ever had in his entire lifetime being around his demonic kin.

At the very least he couldn't cut his ties before he had tried everything he could to still hold on to his demonic identity. If he didn't at least try that much, he was sure he would forever wonder if things could not have turned out differently.

He closed his eyes bitterly. But the last thing he could try…involved getting the favor of King Rushu. If Rubilax somehow managed to get his approval, everyone else would approve of him as well. But that was the tricky part…how, exactly, would he gain his king's favor? Last time he had tried gaining it by conquering the human realm in his king's name, only to realize it was impossible due to monsters like Goultard running around out there. Only Rushu himself could ever hope to conquer the human realm…

This made him blink in surprise. Maybe that was it? If he found a way to connect the mortal realm with the Shukrute, the realm of demons, perhaps Rushu would be delighted enough to finally accept him? It was worth a shot, no? And he knew a certain young Eliatrope who could form the portals he needed to do that.

He took one more glance at the currently sleeping Dally above him and frowned. That guy wouldn't like his friends to be used like that. But this wasn't about Dally. This was about Rubilax. His shot at figuring out where he truly belonged.

His final chance.

He would take it.

* * *

Eva eyed the throne room warily as the ghouls undid her restraints and left her as well as Remington here by themselves. The action itself seemed more than just fishy. Why capture them only to release them again? It made little sense now, did it?

Still, she wasn't all that upset to have been brought here. After all, this was Rubilaxia, right? The place Dally told her to come to. He had said he was being held prisoner in the throne room, so the various cages hanging from the ceiling were the first things she checked. Unfortunately, though, they were all empty. The only thing this room held were sleeping Shushus hanging on the wall as well as a throne. Wait, was someone sitting on it? She took a few steps forward to have a better look.

_Evangelyne!_

She froze on the spot. That voice. Dally's voice. The body on the throne rose and although it was a bit hard to see due to the sunlight casting obscuring shadows over the figure, she still managed to make out the all too familiar silhouette of her lovely knight. She could barely believe her eyes.

"Dally…" She whispered softly and in slight disbelief. For months she had been told to let him go. That he had been dead. That it had been time to move on. She had refused to, had chosen to cling to the faint hope that he could still have been alive. She had known it had been unreasonable, had half expected to return empty handed and heartbroken, but now it turned out that she had been right all along. He was alive. She could have him back!

She stormed forward from one moment to the next. She would take him back alright. And let's see someone trying to take him from her again. They would be mighty sorry, let her tell you that. You could say about Cras what you wanted, but they surely learned from their mistakes. She may have allowed her valiant knight to get taken from her once, but to let that happen a second time, you would have to rip him out of her cold, dead hands.

"Dally!" She exclaimed happily, rapidly approaching him in her eagerness to hold him in her arms again. "I knew you weren't dead! I was sure of it!"

_No, Eva! Don't come any closer! Stay back!_

This caught her by surprise. His voice…didn't come from his body, but…above? Looking up she saw Rubilax' sword prison hanging not far above the throne. Did the voice come from it? But how…?

Meanwhile, Dally had finally opened his eyes, but those were not the pale brown eyes she once knew, but demonic ones. And once he finally spoke, she finally realized who it was that currently occupied Dally's body.

"Hello, Evangelyne."

"Rubilax! How? That's…that's impossible!"

Nothing is impossible for a Shushu like me." He boasted grandly, invoking her anger.

"What have you done, you…!"

"Don't be too mad with him, Eva." Dally tried to calm her down. He really was in Rubi's former prison now. "He did save me, after all. If it weren't for him, I…"

"How about you shut that trap of yours before I make you, huh?" Rubilax quickly interrupted him angrily. "Telling such lies, who do you think you are? I am a Shushu, I save nothing. I just erase." He approached Eva with an evil smirk. "Should I start with you, perhaps?"

He raised his hand against her, ready to bring it down on her. She braced for an impact that never came, for his hand stopped a hair's length before actually touching her. She eyed Rubilax with equally as much confusion as he was apparently in right now.

"What? What is the meaning of this?" He asked nobody in particular, trying again and again to hit her…to no avail. Dally laughed at the demon's vain attempt to harm Eva.

"I would never hurt Eva, so my body simply refuses to obey your command in that regard."

"Impossible…!" While Rubi tried his hardest to prove his former guardian wrong, Dally made use of the opportunity to talk with Eva again.

"You probably can't imagine how happy I am to see you again, Eva. You look even more stunning than I remember."

" _You_  are happy?" She smiled at him with sparkling eyes. "That's my line. I thought I would never see you again, until you started calling out to me. I was worried I was going crazy! I am so glad I am not and you are still alive!" Sure, he was currently in a bit of a weird situation, being stuck in a sword, but details, details. Having him back was good enough for now, in his correct body or not.

"All's well that ends well, beautiful adventurer." He said, she found truer words had never been said before.

"All's well that ends well, you big lump."

"Are you kidding me? Who do you think you are, ignoring me? I will be the one to destroy you!" Rubilax tried to object but only ended up facing Eva who had already gotten out her bow and was drawing back an arrow at him, missing him by a hair as he ducked last second.

"You can consider yourself lucky you missed me, blondie. For someone who thinks herself to be oh-so-clever, you seem to have overlooked the fact that disfiguring me means you disfigure your sweetheart as well." Rubi was quick to point out angrily to which Eva didn't seem impressed in any way. Rubi apparently never realized he hadn't been the target from the start as Eva had merely sought to summon her friends so she got to share the good news of Dally's return with them as well as rub a well-deserved portion of "I told you so" into their faces. In Amalia's face particularly. Who was chasing ghosts now, huh?

A sudden assault of Remington drew her attention back to the scene in front of her as he had knocked out Rubi in one swift strike. She would have been grateful for the support if she hadn't been absolutely sure he had done so out of ulterior motives. Still, as a woman who knew her manners, she decided to give him an obligatory "Thank you" regardless.

"Don't thank me, Evangelyne, as I will be taking every weapon in this room with me to claim the world as mine."

She narrowed her eyes on him. What did she say? So predictable. Well, it was not like she cared much. If he wanted the weapons, he was free to get them as far as she was concerned. She was just here for Dally, after all.

"Surely you mean ours, brother." The bow meow behind them said with an evil smirk as it fused with one of the Shushus it had acquired to become a sizeable monster with razor sharp teeth and claws. It then approached Eva with an evil grin, claiming: "And there is no room for you in our world, little Cra."

Said Cra took a step back, cursing internally. Of course, why would it ever be easy…

"Hey furball, you better back off there if you know what's good for you." Dally suddenly yelled at them while staring the monster down angrily before directing his attention to Remington. "Same goes for you, smugface. You harm but a single blonde hair of Eva and I will make you regret it, got it?"

This made the possessed bow meow chuckle derisively. "A protective Shushu, how grand."

"Hmm, from all the Shushus in this room, that one is on display the most. It must be the strongest of them all." Remington deduced, stroking his chin before a greedy smirk was formed on his lips. "I want it."

Using their moment of inattentiveness, Eva quickly drew another arrow in her bow and shot it at the face of the demonified feline, making it cry out in pain and hold its aching face. Remington's attention was immediately back on her once he noticed that, but it was only in time to see a fist flying at his face. Receiving it, he grunted in pain but was quick enough to regain his stance and catch the follow up strike of Eva in his right hand.

Angry eyes locking on each other, the blonde Cra hissed: "Don't you dare. He's mine."

This caused Remington's smirk to grow even wider. "I love your angry look, Evangelyne. And knowing how desperately you want that thing will make taking it from you all the more enjoyable."

"Lowly scum!" She growled at him as she tried kicking him in the side to free herself from the grip he still had on her fist. He groaned in mild pain but didn't seem very impressed otherwise.

"You are a feisty one, aren't you? Just the way I like them. Let's play rough, then." He told her as he proceeded to throw her over his shoulder and unholstered one of his gun-shaped Shushu pistols to aim it down at her as she lied on the ground. She barely managed to roll off to her side in time to avoid getting riddled with bullet holes. Damn, this dude was not fucking around. But neither was she.

She quickly swept away his feet to make him fall to the ground, then used the opportunity to get back on her own feet before he could. This was a very unfavorable fight for her so she was better off fulfilling her objective and then get the hell out of Dodge which meant getting Dally into her possession and running away as fast as he feet could carry her. Luckily for her, she was not bound to some code of honor forbidding her from retreating unlike a certain knight she knew.

She quickly ran to the throne while dodging further shots of Remington who had not wasted a single second to take aim once more the moment he had recovered from his fall. Using the unconscious Rubilax as a foothold, she quickly climbed the stony structure to boost her way up. But just as she was about to jump up into the air, a hand took hold of her ankle and pulled her back down.

"The hell do you think you are stepping on, girlie? Do I look like a doormat to you?" Rubilax growled at her. He about had it with this girl and her insolence.

Eva groaned in frustration. Just what she had needed. More problems. Speaking of which…where had that oversized bow meow gone?

"Oh, what the hell…?" Rubi suddenly exclaimed as he saw the huge feline running straight at them, lunging directly at the throne with crazed eyes, eager to devour two tasty looking humans. Rubi let Eva go to brace for the attack properly while the blonde Cra used the chance to leap into the air high enough to grab and free Dally from his chain.

"Evangelyne!" Dally uttered her name in gratitude as she held him in her hands as if he were a sacred artifact. Her eyes sparkled from the relief of merely holding him once more. Like she had just managed to acquire a relic that was thought to be lost forever yet had magically resurfaced. The greatest treasure of them all, truly priceless and finally back where it belonged. With her.

"Hey there, my handsome redhead." She greeted him happily. "This time, I will be saving you."

He laughed. "I am in quite some capable hands, then."

"Thanks for getting that thing down for me, Evangelyne. You can hand it over now." They could hear Remington's voice behind Eva as he aimed his Shushu twin pistols at her cockily. With nothing but annoyance in her face, the blonde Cra spun around, Sword-Dally in hand and ready to fight.

"You want him? Come and get him." She told him with a confident smirk, beckoning him with her free hand. She had seen Dally use this blade with great effect. A sword may not have been her weapon of choice, but she at least knew how to wield one. If she could use Dally even just half as effectively as he had used Rubilax, Remington would be toast. Hah, would serve him right after all the shit he had put her through.

"Just try me, loser! I will teach you what happens when someone tries to mess with my Cra!" Dally quickly joined in on her taunt, never hesitant on joining a fight. Especially if it concerned Eva.

Remington frowned as he considered his chances of success. He knew he could take Eva on if he played his cards right, but that Shushu blade she had just procured was an unknown variable. He knew it must be powerful, but by how much? Was he willing to risk finding out? Still, he hadn't come all the way to this place to leave empty handed…

Perhaps if Grany were to finally help him out a bit instead of messing around like an idiot, he could attempt to take them on…

Speaking of which…

"Who do you think you are, you filthy fleabag? I will teach you some goddamn respect!" He could hear that weirdo with red hair shout as he ripped out the Shushu his brother had gotten for himself forcefully with his bare hands, followed by throwing the heavy beast at him effortlessly. "There, return to sender."

Grany came crashing at him with enough force to knock him over right before he could have had enough time to shrink back into his normal size. Simply unbelievable, who was that weirdo to throw a heavy demonified war beast around like that? These punks made him look like a damn amateur which pissed him off.

While Remington was getting back on his feet, Rubilax faced Eva and Dally, pointing a finger at them angrily.

"And now to you, Dumb and Dumber. You clearly came to the wrong neighborhood." He told them as he hit his own palm with his fist eagerly. "Let me introduce you to a whole new world of pain."

"Big talk from someone who can't even touch Eva!" Dally responded with an implied grin.

"Who needs to touch her when you can just crush her with things like this!" He eagerly lifted his own throne up and smirked as he threw it right at her, causing Dally's eye to open up wide in surprise.

"Eva, you gotta move!"

She did just that, rolling off at the last possible moment to avoid harm.

"Quick, Dally. Tell me how to transform you." She asked of him as she kept dodging Rubilax' onslaught of stony projectiles.

"Uh, well, you see…" He stuttered nervously before lowering his gaze in shame. "I don't really know how to do that."

"Are you kidding me?" She asked him in shock. "Come on, this is your weapon. You've got to know how it works."

"Give me a break, Eva. I was the one on the outside, never the guy stuck inside." He tried to defend himself.

"Well, then tell me what I need to do on the outside."

"Welp, I usually just told Rubi to get going. Sometimes hitting him against the ground did the trick."

"That's all?" Eva asked suspiciously as she smacked him against the floor.

"Ouch! You didn't have to do it so damn hard!"

"Ah, sorry." She quickly apologized. "Well, figured something out from that?"

Exerted groans could be heard coming from the sword as Dally seemed to force himself to change into one of his prison's combat forms, but even though it seemed to work partially, he still reverted back into his usual form in the end, breathing heavily.

"Man, that's really hard." He had to admit as he looked at her with a regretful expression. He really wanted to help her out but didn't know how. "Sorry, Eva."

"Don't worry about it, Dally. We will figure something out." She told him reassuringly and tried to cheer him up with a kind smile.

Rubilax, on the other hand, couldn't help but laugh at him vehemently.

"What's the matter, Dally-boy? Having some trouble getting big? Don't worry, pal. Happens to the best of us. Doesn't make you any bit less of a man, right Eva?"

"Ah, well…" Eva averted her gaze, trying to mask her amusement over that joke. She had to admit, it was kinda funny.

"Hey, hey! Put a sock in it, Rubi! And you!" He looked at Eva angrily. "Don't laugh at his jokes, damnit! Not cool!"

She forced herself to gulp down the rest of her chuckle. "S-sorry."

The short moment of inattentiveness was all it took for a certain rogue to skillfully shoot Dally out of Eva's hands, making him fly through the air. While Eva was still busy comprehending what had just happened, Remington had already been on the move, running quickly to catch Dally in midair, followed by heading to the nearest window.

"You better be worth the trouble, Shushu." He grumbled as he looked down on Dally before putting him away on his belt. "I will be taking this. Wish I could claim it was nice spending time with you all, but it wasn't. Smell you later." He then felt the need to say back at Evangelyne and Rubilax before he bailed on them by jumping straight out of the window, Grany sitting on his shoulders.

"Dally!" Eva yelled after them, holding out a hand in vain hope of making them stop somehow. Her shock was soon to make room for anger, though. Who did that good for nothing rouge think he was, taking Dally from her? He had quite some nerve stealing from a Cra and thinking he could get away with it. Hell would sooner be freezing over than her losing a trail. This Remington fella might have thought he had struck gold by robbing her when in reality, all he had managed to do was put a target on his back. He would soon come to regret that. She  _never_  missed her mark.

"You really gotta stop ignoring me, Blondie. Me, the great, terrifying Rubilax!"

"And you gotta stop going on my nerves!" Eva told him with an annoyed growl as she turned around to kick him in the nuts, ironically sending him into the world of pain he had originally sought to put her in.

"Why must…humanity suck…so much…!" He groaned as he fell to his knees, forcing himself not to cry. Was there any place on this pathetic body that didn't hurt like a bitch when hit? And why would you place such a critical weak spot into such an easily accessible area? Human evolution sure as hell was flawed beyond belief! He wanted his demon body back…

"That's right. You just sit there and think about what you have done!" She scolded him angrily before turning around to check the walls for a suitable weapon to chase the heavily armed Remington with. Last time he had given her a hard time because she hadn't been prepared for a fight against someone carrying Shushus around like jewelry. This time, she could arm herself with just as many as she needed herself. However, there were quite a lot of them around and she didn't have the luxury of taking her time to pick the most suitable one…

She would love to claim that her trusty bow was all she needed to take on any foe, but when it came down to getting Dally back, she would rather make absolutely sure she would not fail. There was no room for pride and errors. Her heart screamed at her to not waste time, to give chase before Remington could cover his tracks, but she forced herself to remain calm, could not allow her emotions to run wild. She needed to be the professional she had been trained to be.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she no longer had the look of a worried woman on her face but the look of a predator stalking her prey. The sheer number of weapons lying at her disposal no longer overwhelmed her, the majority of them instinctually getting appraised by her and quickly disregarded as inferior goods, not suitable for her needs. Instead, the strongest of them all instantly caught her eye. A sword that radiated the killing intent of a ferocious beast, a demon that would not surrender its prey until it lied defeated before its master's feet. This would do, she thought as she took the blade into her possession, strapping it on her back.

Not wasting any more time, Eva jumped up to the window Remington had bailed from, her jade eyes shining in the light of a sun that was about to vanish below the horizon. It didn't take her long to spot the figure of a thieving scoundrel jumping from one rooftop to the next. He was fast, Eva gave him that much, but not fast enough. With her prey now in her sights, there was no longer any hope of him escaping her. She jumped down, beginning her chase.

The hunt was on.

* * *

As expected, the hunt hadn't turned out to be a particularly long nor hard one. Sure, that scoundrel had made her chase him all around town, trying to make her fall into his dirty traps and using every trick at his disposal to fool her into making a mistake that would have cost her greatly, but in the end, she still managed to pin him down, point her weapon at him and make him surrender the treasure he had stolen from her. But even with a blade held close to his throat he still had had the nerve to try and outwit her, throwing Dally into the abyss below the moment he had learnt of his lack of demonic strength.

Naturally she had leapt after him, catching him midfall to avoid losing him to the mist below. She had yet to make out a ground he could have landed onto and she somewhat doubted even Rubilax knew what actually lied down there. Either way, she hadn't been particularly eager to find out, much less let Dally be the guinea pig in that regard. Remington might have found out by now, however, now that he had ended up falling into the depths he had originally tried to push Dally into. Served him right, Eva thought. That's what he got for trying to harm her Iop.

Now that the hunt was over, her priceless Iop was back in her possession and her prey had finally been dealt with, the sharpness in her eyes finally dispersed in favor of relief as she held Dally close, apparently not even caring in the slightest that she was hugging a sword rather than an actual person.

"My hero, still looking out for me even in your current situation." She praised him thankfully as it had been him that had warned her from Remington's final ruse.

"But of course. A knight always protects his princess." He responded proudly, but then laughed sheepishly. "Although this time it was mostly the other way around. I am so glad you came for me, Eva."

She chuckled amusedly. "Not even Ogrest's chaos could have stopped me from coming to save you, you big dummy."

He seemed to be blushing at those words, averting his gaze ever so slightly. "So, uh, does that mean you like me, perhaps a little?"

She narrowed her eyes on him in disbelief, albeit blushing ever so slightly herself. "You Iop brain, do I have to spell it out for you?"

His eye began sparkling in happiness. "You do, don't you? Please say yes." She blushed even more. Cra, why was this guy so adorable? He was like a puppy asking for cuddles. Damnit, he wasn't even fully back yet and already managed to make her heart race, filling her mind with these sugar-sweet thoughts that made her feel all fuzzy and warm inside.

Ah, how she had missed this feeling…

"How about we delay this for when we get your body back? I would much rather tell you what I think of you face to face." She told him while looking away nervously, afraid she might say quite some…embarrassing things if she were to speak her mind to him right now. And, well, if she had to be all girly and weird about it, she would much rather do it in front of the real him where she could just hug him afterwards so she wouldn't have to make him see her flustered face so much.

"Oh, I am not entirely sure that's even possible…" Dally told her sadly, catching her by surprise.

"What makes you say that?"

"I asked Rubi about it before. He said it had been a one-time thing and could not be undone…"

She narrowed her eyes on him. "And you believed him?"

"Why would he lie to me?"

"Dally, he is a demon. They are all about lies and deception. Rubilax in particular would rather lie than admit he did something nice…" She told him, then blinked at her own words, realizing something. If Rubi would rather mask his kindness with cruel lies, then perhaps he had told Dally that lie to hide the fact that he could be saved after all. Perhaps he was even planning to give him his body back from the start. That little rascal, why was he always such a handful? Couldn't he simply be a good guy and be done with it? Why did everything always have to be so roundabout with him?

"Well, it's not like it matters to me. Even if I won't get my body back, I will still protect you." He told her dutifully.

"While these words certainly do make me happy, I would rather have  _all_  of you back, you know?" She told him with a slight pout.

"You think I can't protect you properly as I am now?" He asked her with a frown. "All I need is to figure out how to transform and then I can-"

"Dally, this isn't just about protection, you big oaf!" She told him in frustration as she took hold of her forehead in disbelief. The air-headedness of this man, seriously.

"It is not?" He looked at her confusedly.

"No, I need far more from you than just your protection. There are things we can only do when you are there with me." She tried to explain.

"Like what?" He would have raised a brow if only he could have.

This made her blush again, averting her gaze as she fumbled around with her hands. "W-well, for example, holding hands, hugging, k-kissing…" She grew more and more silent the further she got on her list. Didn't matter, though, for Dally had heard her just fine, given how his eye started sparkling at her again.

He gasped. "So you  _do_ like me. This has to absolutely be the happiest day in my life." He sounded as excited as a kid about to go to the Trool Fair. This made Eva smirk at him.

"Really now? You would think the day you were revived would have been the best day of your life."

"Ah, that was also very good, true. But this moment right now is better." He told her happily, making sure to burn this memory right into his mind so he would never forget it. He had a particularly forgetful brain, unfortunately, so he always made extra sure to never lose his important memories, like the day Master Goultard accepted him as his student. Or the day he had slain his first monster. Or the day he had met Yugo and the others. And now, this day, too.

Eva smiled at the sweetness of his words. Had anyone else told her the same thing, she would have simply disregarded it as shallow flattery, but with Dally she could always be sure that he was telling the truth. He never lied. He would probably be too bad at it to even try. Such was the fate of someone with as pure a heart as his one was.

"Sometimes you say the sweetest of things, you know?" She told him with a short giggle.

"You think so? I just speak what's on my mind…"

"That's what makes it so sweet. Well, most of the time, anyway." Sometimes there was a whole lot of stupid nonsense, too, but she was able to disregard that. That was just the way he was, after all.

He laughed shyly as he noticed her giving him that cute smile of hers. From one moment to the next, he transformed into the sword prison's bigger form, catching Eva by surprise.

"H-huh? What's wrong? Did I do something bad?" Dally eyed her in a panic once he realized how shocked she looked.

"N-no, Dally. Look, you transformed." She pointed out to him, making him look at himself.

"Woah! You are right! Told ya I would figure it out somehow." He boasted proudly.

"Well, how did you do it?"

"No idea."

She sighed and shook her head. Classic Dally, ladies and gentlemen.

"It's got to be something you just did, so let's try to figure it out real quick, alright?"

"Sure. I was just happy about your praise right now, so maybe it was that?"

She frowned in disdain, getting an unpleasant déjà vu from Skribble. Please no.

"Will you tell me the way as well if I call you the strongest, most handsome knight?"

This made him remember the annoying Shushu map as well and with an expression that told volumes of his disgust, he immediately shrunk back to his original size.

"You shrank again." Eva noted.

"Yeah, and I hate that map."

This caused a certain map's voice to be heard coming from Eva's bag where she had hastily stuffed Skribble into back when Remington had tried to steal him from her, too.

"I hate you, too, dingus! And for the record, I didn't want to come here for you. I was map-napped by your witch of a girlfriend."

Dally narrowed down his eye at that remark and said: "Hey Eva, do you mind taking that guy out for a sec? I would love to cut him to pieces."

Eva shared his expression. "I know where you are coming from, but unfortunately, I promised Yugo I would bring him back."

"We could always blame it on that honorless douche with the cat, you know?"

"H-hey, surely there is no need for that? Aren't we all friends?" Skribble nervously asked them, causing them both to laugh at his predictability.

"Thinking of Skribble turned you back, but what made you transform in the first place…?" Eva decided to get back to the topic at hand. Could it have been…

"Dally,…" She blushed slightly but eventually asked him: "What happens when you think of me?"

"Well before you came here my mind would just end up wandering through the world until I found you, but now that you are already here, I am not sure what-oh." He had changed into his big form again, causing Eva to smirk as it confirmed her theory.

"Now try thinking about Ruel's feet." Eva told him, he immediately shrunk back, making a sound as if he was shuddering.

"Now Yugo." Nothing happened.

"Me." He grew big again, eye sparkling.

"Armand." Shrunk back down. Annoyance.

"Amalia." Nothing.

"Me." Big as ever and eager to strike.

This made it obvious. Disgust, hatred and annoyance made him shrink and the opposite made him grow. Everything in between had no effect. Now it didn't take a genius to figure out what kind of feelings could be found on the opposite spectrum of disgust, hatred and annoyance and realizing he only managed to feel that when thinking about her caused a weird sense of pride to well up inside her. A stupefied grin crawled up her face as well.

It was not like Dally had made a big secret out of his affection for her but having such a visual confirmation was still always nice to have.

"You seem happy for some reason." Dally noted, sounding quite happy about that as well.

"Yep, and it's all your fault." She sighed, unable to wipe that smile off her face.

"If that's the case, then sorry, not sorry." He told her with a content laugh. "So, now that we figured out how to make me transform, ready for a revanche against Rubi?"

She offered him an eager smirk. "You bet. Let's get your body back for good. With luck, our friends will have gotten my recall arrow and have already dealt with Rubi for us."

"Right. I am sure they will immediately figure out it is Rubi and not me." Dally said with confidence, not seeming to see how plausible the opposite of his scenario actually was. Eva's eyes opened up wide in shock as she realized he made a valid point.

"Oh crap, we gotta hurry!"

And like that, she had already darted into the direction she had come from, hoping it was not yet too late.

* * *

"We are too late." Dally noticed as he and Eva saw Rubi and his army of ghouls taking Yugo and the ghoulified versions of Ruel and Amalia with him into an elevator that seemed to take them somewhere below. Eva let her head sink in shame, knowing it was partially her fault her friends had been captured. She had to fix that somehow.

"We gotta go after them!" Dally decided quickly, sporting a determined expression. Naturally, Eva shared his vigor but couldn't help but be worried. They didn't know what would await them on the other side and might find themselves in an unfavorable situation.

"What if it's a trap?" She tried to object.

"Who cares? You've got me. I am stronger than any trap."

This made the blonde smirk at him knowingly. "Said the guy trapped in his own sword."

"Well, that is…uh…" Not knowing how to get himself out of that one, Dally visibly struggled to find a response, but Eva merely smiled at him and nodded.

"But you are right regardless. We simply have to go and if it's trapped, we just need to overcome it. There is no other choice. Our friends depend on us."

"Well said, Eva!" Her redheaded knight seemed to approve of her resolve. That was the spirit!

The elevator eventually returned, allowing them to board it as well.

"Well, there is no going back after entering this thing. Ready, my valiant knight?" She asked him confidently to which he responded:

"My sword is yours! …Literally." The last bit was added with a bit of delay, as if he had only realized that after he had already said it.

She chuckled at that. "Let's get the rest of you back so it's no longer literally."

"Right!"

They entered the elevator and began their descent. Seeing as to how the trip took a bit longer than she initially assumed it would, Eva decided to ask: "So, am I right to assume we are just going smack Rubi until he gives up? That would be your usual plan, no?"

"I'll admit, that does sound like a lot of fun and last time we had our differences, that's exactly how we solved them, but this time it's even easier. See, Rubi is actually quite the nice guy which is probably the reason his demon friends don't like him…"

"So that's the reason he behaves like a prick." Eva concluded. "He wants to fit into the gang of pricks."

"Yep, but since he is a good guy at heart, we technically just have to talk some sense into him and this whole mess will get resolved by itself. We could still beat his ass if you want to, though. I won't oppose."

"I would rather not. That guy seems to be stuck in his own personal crisis as it is." That would make her feel like she was bullying him…

"Ah, it will be fine. He still has me and the rest of the gang. We will be his friends." Dally decided cheerfully to which Eva could only smile in defeat.

"Well, he did bring you back from death, so I suppose I owe him at least that much."

The elevator eventually reached its destination and opened up its doors to reveal an army of ghouls waiting for them. Eva flinched nervously, having half expected to run into this kind of trouble, but Dally had been right. There was nothing to fear with him at her side. Together they would overcome this.

"Let's go, Dally." She swung the blade around flashily but ended up eying him worriedly when he hadn't changed his form even after several seconds of waiting. "Come on, Dally, that's not funny." She whispered to him nervously.

"I know. I am trying here…" He told her under what seemed to be heavy strain. He appeared to really try to change his shape, but, like before, it always ended up being an incomplete transformation that would revert into the normal dagger shape.

"Need me to hit you against the ground again?" She asked him worriedly as the ghouls started approaching them.

"No need, I got this."

"Come on, you can do this, Dally. Just think of me like you did earlier."

"I am trying to, Eva, but all I can currently think about is how I need to change shape now or these things will attack you. How disappointed you will be if I can't perform now after talking so big earlier. How it would all be my fault…"

Yikes, he was totally going at this from the wrong direction. She saw how it was, she had to help him out, get him back on the right track. Bringing him close to her lips, she closed her eyes and placed a small kiss on his blade. A simple action alone that immediately blew all the stressful thoughts away, making room for the ones he really needed to focus on. He transformed into his bigger form the very next second, his eye looking so eager for battle it almost seemed as if it was on fire. A battle cry echoed through the chamber as he got hyped up.

"Oooooooh! I did it, Eva! Let me at them! I will mow them down for you!"

"I never doubted you!" She offered him a gentle smile before assuming a battle posture. "Now, shall we?"

"Right on! En garde, you ruffians! Here we come!"

* * *

Rubi folded his arms in front of his chest and waited in front of a giant Shushu mirror for the connection with his king to be formed. This was the moment of truth. He didn't know why, but out of nowhere, Yugo and his friends had shown up in his throne room shortly after Evangelyne had ran off. If that hadn't been a fateful sign for the young brat to be presented before his king, he didn't know what was! How ironic it truly was that a boy with a heart pure as freshly fallen snow would serve as the key to regain his status as a vicious and foul demon in the eyes of his peers. Granted, he was a bit worried that he had lost Percedal to some clown dressed in black but Eva was already on it, so it was probably fine. Percedal was in good hands with her and Rubi had bigger fish to fry right now. Namely convincing the big boss that he, the mighty and terrifying Rubilax was worthy of being one of his foul and evil Shushus. If this didn't work, nothing ever would.

The image of his mighty king was finally formed in the giant mirror before him. Signaling for Rubilax that it was time for him to start speaking. And so he offered his king a humble bow as he addressed him:

"Rushu, King of Kings, your loyal and unworthy Rubilax desires to speak with you."

The king of Shushus threw a glance at him and began smirking at him derisively.

"Ah, if it isn't Rubi the moron. To what do I owe this displeasure?"

His eye twitched in annoyance upon hearing that stupid title once more but he quickly pressed his eyes shut and bowed to hide it from his superior. He was doing all this to get rid of it, after all.

"King of the evildoers and the smelly, I have some delightful news for you." He proudly informed his king who instead seemed to be more interested in the ring Rubi currently wore.

"Is that so, but before you tell me about that, isn't that Shadofang I spot on your horrible human finger?"

He flinched. Crap, maybe he should have hidden her from sight. Now that Rushu had seen her, he would always just want to speak with her instead. That wouldn't do, though…this was  _his_  moment to shine, not hers. Before that wench could try hogging all of his king's attention to herself, he quickly put his hand over her and took charge of the conversation again.

"Yes, my king, but that's not important right now, for I believe I have found a way to invade the human world at last!"

This made Rushu raise a brow in curiosity. "Have you finally come to make yourself useful, my feeblest of all Shushus?"

He stood up and presented Yugo to his king proudly. "I've captured this boy, an Eliatrope. I've seen him at work and he is capable of creating portals."

This seemed to finally have gained Rushu's undivided attention as he leaned forward with quite some interest. "Portals? Like the ones that originally allowed us to enter this vile world in the first place?"

"The very same, just smaller." Rubi added the last bit nervously.

"Very interesting, my little Rubi, but tell me, why are your brothers and sisters still inside their prisons?"

Rubi had barely even opened his mouth to explain when his king was already yelling at him to shut up, asking for Shadofang's opinion instead. Rubi growled internally. Shadofang here, Shadofang there. Had he come up with that portal plan or had she? That dumb sister of his would still be at Count Wagnar's finger, serving at his beck and call if it hadn't been for him, bloody hell!

_Oooooooh!_

Rubi blinked in surprise and turned around. Sounded like Dally was back here which meant Evangelyne had successfully gotten him back. That was good, but this was quite the bad time. He hastily waved his hand at the ghouls standing further back to go and deal with them while he tried getting this over quickly.

"What was that noise?" King Rushu asked them with a raised brow.

"Nothing, my king. Just some fools I keep torturing in the background. No need to concern your royal self with such small fries." Rubi tried playing the matter down with a nervous smile, only to have Shadofang fall into his back like the bitch she was.

"That, my king, is just Rubilax' doomed to fail plan. He isn't torturing anyone. In fact, he is keeping us all prisoners while he had gone out of his way to save a human's life." She told her king with a smug grin to which Rubi could only glare at her angrily.

"She is lying, king of kings! The only reason I haven't freed them is because they would have ruined the whole plan by usurping me!"

"Don't listen to him, my lord. Rubilax has always been a disgrace to our kind and will never amount to anything more than a traitor, selling out his brethren to appease his human friends. He has never been worthy of our trust!"

"How about you can it, you old hag?" Rubi yelled at her angrily.

That was the moment he saw ghouls getting tossed around left and right as Eva effortlessly flung them to the side with each swing of Dally's awakened form. Rubi narrowed his eyes at them but nodded a somewhat impressed fashion at Dally finally having figured out how to transform the blade. Took him long enough, but still…not bad.

"Excellently done, Eva!" Dally commended her for her skill with the sword, eying her proudly. "Are you sure you wanna stick to the bow? You would make a fantastic swordwoman."

"Oh stop it, you. It was mostly your doing anyway." She waved his praise off with a shy grin.

"No, I mean it! I think I fell in love all over again seeing you fight." He looked at her with nothing but admiration. The strength, the elegance, the execution, all perfect in his eye. What was better than a beautiful princess? A beautiful princess who could fight!

"It sure is fun, I'll admit, but also quite exhausting. I don't know how you can keep doing this all day long." She told him as she wiped off the sweat that had formed on her forehead. She could have easily dealt with all of those foes from a safe distance, wasting not even half the energy she had been using to get here by sword. Well, assuming she had someone to push the frontline and create some space for her, of course.

Dally was about to respond when an angry and ghoulified Amalia threw herself at them, her claws getting parried by Eva who raised Dally protectively before her.

"I am happy to see you, too, Amalia, but no need to be so clingy. Don't worry, I am not going away anytime soon." Dally told her happily, followed by Eva gasping exaggeratedly as she stared at the younger girl's long claws.

"Oh no, Amie! Look at those nails! How unbefitting of a princess!" Eva smirked when she saw Amalia letting go in shock to look at her nails in horror, only to have Eva ram Dally into the ground quickly to take out and wrap a rope around Amalia' wrists hastily, binding them together before the green-haired ghoul could even realize what was going on. Not that she seemed to care much either way, now sitting down and despairing at the sight of her horrifying nails. Oh, the humanity!

Ruel was the next to approach her, but before he could even think about attacking, Eva took out a Kama from her purse and smirked as she waved it around in front of him, talking to him like with a dog. "Look, Ruel. Shiny! Does Ruel want the shiny? Sure he wants the shiny! Fetch!"

Ironically enough, Ruel did just that, running after the coin she had just thrown away on all fours with his tongue out and drooling all over the floor.

"Classic Ruel." Dally chuckled as he was pulled out of the ground by the blonde Cra once more. He spotted Yugo next to Rubilax and cheerfully greeted him.

"Hi, Yugo. Long time no see. How's it going, old pal?"

"Dally? You are…inside of the sword?" The young Eliatrope was equally as confused as he was happy to hear his friend was not as dead as previously assumed.

"Yep, Rubilax saved me."

Rushu roared once he heard this, causing Rubilax to flinch.

"So it's true, after all? You really did fall as low as to save a human life?"

"But my king, if I hadn't, I would still be stuck in my prison and couldn't have-" Rubilax tried to explain himself, but got interrupted by Dally.

"So what if he did, fartface? That's what buds do for one another. Not like someone like you would understand, I suppose, yelling at your subordinates from the safety of the other side of a mirror. You wouldn't talk so big if we were meeting face to face to beat your sorry tyrannical ass, right Rubi?"

"Shut up, you fool!" Rubilax yelled at him, slightly panicked, before turning around to his king once more. "Don't listen to him, my king. He is an Iop, the most retarded version of humans you could possibly ever encounter. They are literally too stupid to even feel fear."

"You seem to be getting along quite nicely, though? From one moron to another." Rushu argued grumpily.

"Of course we are getting along nicely. After all we two have been through, it's quite natural to be friends now." Dally butted in again, resting on Eva's shoulder. "Come on, Rubi. Let's ditch that loser and go on some more adventures together again. That was way more fun than getting talked down by some wanna-be-king, wasn't it?"

"My king, I…" Rubi tried salvaging this horrible situation somehow but could already see Rushu would have none of that. Yelling at him in fury, he said:

"Silence, you degenerate! You bring shame on your people! Free Shadofang now and let her take control."

He frowned in anger, hearing that cursed name again. He stepped in front of the mirror with some newfound determination.

"It was me who captured the Eliatrope. Me who came up with the plan to use him to free you and it is also me who is about to present this world to you on a silver platter. Me, the great Rubilax! So why, my king, is it that I always only keep hearing the name of Shadofang, some worthless hag that would not even be here today if it hadn't been for me bringing her here? You accuse me of mingling with humans, but what else am I supposed to do when my own kind refuses to work with me instead? There is not a single one of my brothers and sisters trying even remotely as hard to gain your favor and yet I am still the most scorned, am the one who has to surrender the fruits of his labor to someone else just so she can reap your approval in the end. I ask you, King of Kings, is that fair?" He looked up to his king bravely, not caving in under his furious expression.

"You dare talk back to your king? Do I look like I give a damn what you consider fair or not? If you dislike my rule, you are free to come back home and challenge me for the throne. Until then, you do as I say. Now, I believe I gave you an order. Free Shadofang right this instant!"

Rubilax was seen gritting his teeth as well as clenching his fist so strongly they started trembling.

"Rubi, no offense, but your boss is a huge jerk." Dally noted with a narrowed down eye.

"And I thought Prince Armand could be a handful…" Eva agreed with him.

"Even I would be a better king. And I am still underage!" Yugo could only shake his head with a heavy sigh.

"Would the peanut gallery shut up already?" Rubilax yelled at them angrily before turning around to face Rushu with a malicious snarl, something inside him having finally snapped. "And you! Why don't you take your royal authority and shove it up your ass, king of assholes! Free Shadofang? Sure thing, lemme free her real quick." He smirked and took her ring-prison off his finger to place it on his left palm, only to flick it away with his other hand's middle finger, effectively tossing that annoying wench right into the nearest furnace.

"Rubilax, you son of a bitch! Just you wait! Once I get out of here, I'll-" He could hear her cry out between curses and groans.

"You'll what, Shadofang? Talk shit like you always do? Try something new for once."

"Now you've done it, Rubilax, I will have your head to serve me as a paperweight, you insignificant fool!" King Rushu roared at him, but Rubilax only waved him off, far too angry to let such a threat faze him. With his left eyelid twitching in fury, he yelled back:

"Be my guest, idiot king! You know where to find me. Too bad you don't have the Eliatrope I would have given you. Who is the moron now, huh? Should have acknowledged me while you still had your chance. You know what's  _really_  funny?" He pointed at Dally and the rest. "I've been a pain in the ass for these losers from day one, but  _they_  accepted me. And yet I have wasted eons trying to please you and still got shit for it. Even humans treat me better than you do, fart face! Guess I will just stay with them then! But have fun on your side, Rushu, king of  _absolutely nothing_. Go to hell!" He smacked the mirror, causing it to shatter into pieces and the image of quite the furious Rushu to get distorted. Then Rubi smirked. "Well, I suppose that's where you already are."

But his smirk was soon to fade, his momentary rush of anger already dissipating, leaving a weird sense of emptiness inside. Now he had really done it. He had burned the last bridge connecting him to demonhood, become a true outcast among his people. A renegade. Now he truly belonged absolutely nowhere.

Well, not that it really changed anything. He hadn't really belonged there before, either. He had just made it official now, that was all. A heavy sigh escaped his lips.

However, he looked up in surprise when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around in wonder, he was a little shocked to see Eva (still carrying Dally), Amalia, Ruel and Yugo standing there, offering him looks of approval.

"What do you guys want? Leave me be." He told them off.

"You seemed like you could need a hug." Yugo told him with a grin, head leaning back against his arms.

"A hug?" Rubilax stepped back in disgust. "Never! I am a de-" He stopped taking midsentence, blinking in confusion, followed by looking down uncertainly.

"Heck if I know what I even am at this point." He sighed.

"A pal." Dally said proudly.

"An interpreter for whenever Dally tries to speak." Ruel suggested with a determined nod, earning him an angry "Hey!" from said redhead.

"A mean mannered pet…?" Amalia offered with folded arms and a shrug. Rubi pinched her cheek and pulled on it, asking: "Who are you calling a pet, moss-head?"

"Some kind of weird uncle I never had, maybe?" Yugo tried to think of something, tapping away on his lip. Well, Ruel was kind of like a weird uncle, too, albeit weird in a different way.

"You are clearly a nice guy pretending to be bad." Evangelyne decided with a kind smile, causing everyone else to smirk approvingly. That seemed to fit the bill the best.

He only stared at her with wide open eyes before eventually admitting that she was probably right. "Maybe that's why I never belonged anywhere." He thought out aloud.

"Well, that's not true now is it?" Dally objected. "You belong with us, right fellas?"

"Sure, why not." Yugo agreed with a shrug. "The more, the merrier."

"Whatever. You could be nicer from now on, though, now that this whole demon business is done and dealt with." Amalia told Rubi with a glare, rubbing her aching cheek.

"Well, Dally was always one of us, so I always considered Rubilax to be as well, to be honest. You can't get one without the other, after all." Ruel reasoned as he scratched the back of his head, thinking.

"He brought Dally back from death. Not even his annoying remarks could make me hate this guy after that anymore." Eva admitted with a slight grin.

Rubi kept staring at them dumbfoundedly. Well, this was certainly weird. But not in a bad way. It didn't quite help him with finding out what he now was, if not a demon, but at least he knew he still  _belonged_  somewhere. In a way, this weird spot he was in right now was more than he ever had before. So what if he would stand on the side of humans? If it worked, it worked. That's all that mattered. For now, that was good enough.

"Speaking of Percedal…" He eventually said, directing his attention to the sword resting on Eva's shoulder. "Think you are ready to get this trash bag of a body bag at last? I've grown quite tired of it by now."

"Whose body are you calling a trash bag, you walking heap of rocks?" Dally yelled at him angrily while Eva eyed him with sparkling eyes.

"So you really can give it back?"

"Of course. I only took it because Dally kept sleeping for ages and would have ironically starved to death if I had given him his body back from the start." Rubi pointed out as he massaged the back of his neck.

"You were  _sleeping_?" Eva asked Dally in disbelief. "All this time?"

"Hey,  _you_  come back from the dead. Let's see  _you_  running a marathon straight off the bat." Dally eyed her angrily, sounding offended. Eva could do little but take hold of her forehead and shake her head with a heavy sigh in response.

"Unbelievable."

"Well, you want it back or not?" Rubi asked him again with annoyance now audible in his voice.

"Sheesh, you gotta ask? Of course I do."

"Well, then I suppose you all should take a step back, this is gonna be unpleasant." For him at least. He took a deep breath before he attempted to forcefully shove his soul back into his prison, allowing Dally to return back where he belonged as well.

Before Dally knew what happened, he felt as if he was forcefully pushed out of the prison, then roughly grabbed by an invisible force and shoved back into his original body. When the mysterious force finally let go of him, he felt quite dizzy and had a bit of trouble readjusting to the feeling of having muscles he could move once again. Luckily for him, Eva was there to catch him before he could fall over like a felled tree. Thanks to her support, he eventually managed to regain his senses and was able to stand on his own legs once more.

When he finally opened his eyes and Eva was able to see, not Rubi's, but her lovely knight's eyes again, she, at last, allowed herself to utter a sigh of relief, letting out the air she hadn't even realized she had held in due to all the tension.

A feeling her redheaded Iop seemed to share, for he offered her a relieved smile as well and gave her his sincere gratitude for having come for him, saving him:

"Thank you so much, Eva."

Hearing his voice coming from his own body once more was the final proof her mind had needed to accept that he was really back again. Truly restored. Her long-lost knight, her heroic warrior…

He had come back to her at last.

The blonde Cra's arms had found their way around her beloved Iop's neck as soon as that realization had sunk in, taking in all of the things she had previously assumed she would never get to experience and feel again. His warmth, his smell, the soothing sound he made as he breathed. It may not have seemed to be much to others, but to her, it had been the world. Not even a single week ago, she would have given anything for just a second of this. It felt quite surreal to believe she could keep this from now on. A scary thought entered her mind, making her silently wonder if she wasn't merely dreaming. She subconsciously held him even closer once the possibility had infected her thoughts. Oh Cra, don't let her be dreaming, please. And if you did, just never make her wake again. That's all she asked of you. When she felt Dally's strong arms wrapping themselves around her in turn, she could no longer hold in the tears of happiness that now freely flowed down her cheeks. She had just been a bit stupid, she realized. This couldn't have been a simple dream. It felt too real to be one, after all.

Percedal himself knew better than to assume this to be a mere dream for he had already seen things nobody could possibly even dream of. He had been on the other side, albeit briefly, and seen what awaited heroes once their time had come. He lacked the vocabulary to ever express the sheer beauty of it all, would forever be awestruck with what he had seen and felt there and yet it all dwarfed in comparison to this very moment he experienced right now. For this moment included Evangelyne as to where the afterlife hadn't. That's right, heaven seemed wonderful only as long as he didn't realize it lacked his lovely angel at which point it just became bleak. Paradise was quick to become stale without his most precious Cra at his side to experience it together with him. Rather than being stuck in a utopia that would become a dystopia without her, he would instead just want to enjoy the heaven she created for him simply by being with him. True paradise was wherever she went and nowhere else. That, he was certain of.

Besides, he still had plenty of time to be a legend after he had lived a long and fulfilled life with Evangelyne. And whoever was in charge of handing out legend-statuses would better be handing it out to Eva afterwards as well or he would find the guy and beat him up until he declared her a legend, that's for sure.

Rubi for his part could only roll his eye at them. He may no longer know what he was, but if there was one thing he knew then that he was still repulsed by all this romance stuff. Urgh, he felt like throwing up. But oh well, guess he shouldn't complain all that much. This was about to become his life now, after all. The weird interpreting uncle/pet/pal/good guy that would stick around a lovey-dovey couple that just couldn't keep their hands off each other.

…

Heh, could be worse, he supposed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, let's make a cut here.
> 
> "Whaaaat? No dramatic drowning scene?" You will ask. Don't worry. Will reference that next chapter, which will also be entirely made up of non-animation scenes, so no recycling to be afraid of for next time, don't worry.
> 
> Next chapter might also include mature content, depending on whether I feel up to it and end up liking what I write enough to deem it presentable. Would not be my first lemon but it's been a while that I have written one. I might have gotten rusty.
> 
> Anyway, despite my struggles with this chapter, I still had a lot of fun writing the original parts of it. I loved the Rubilaxia arc in the show and adored how Eva didn't even gave a single fuck that Dally was stuck in his sword. She was just happy as hell to have him back in whatever form possible. He could have stayed a sword for the rest of the show and I feel like she would have loved the guy no less for it. While that, obviously, never happened, the thought alone always manages to warm my heart.
> 
> There were quite a few jokes in this chapter. So many, in fact, I ended up removing some of them again to make it less of a comedy sketch. There were a lot more sexual jokes about Dally struggling to "get big" as well as him and Eva figuring out his trigger to "awaken" in a more...inappropriate way. In the end I decided against it, thinking that less can be more sometimes.
> 
> Before I end this A/N, Rubi asked me to let him have some closing words.
> 
> Rubi: "Indeed, so now that I have your attention, listen well!"  
> Dally&Eva: ...?  
> Rubi: *ahem* "My name spelled backwards is actually: X-(C)alibur! You may be amazed now."  
> Eva: *unimpressed frown* "You are missing a C somewhere in there."  
> Rubi: *defensive* "But that would make the name sound dumb...!"  
> Dally: "I don't get it. Is this Escapone thing some kind of big deal or something?"  
> Rubi: "...I hate you all."


	8. How to tame your Iop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, look at that, I finally managed to update this. Took me long enough, right? What can I say, there are many factors that delayed this chapter. Such as:
> 
> \- It's length. (About 43k words)
> 
> \- The summer heat that thankfully has ended now. ( I do not perform well during hot seasons)
> 
> \- I had to work, leaving me with only the weekend to write
> 
> \- My brother in law got into playing D&D and dragged my sister and me into it, forcing us to give up every second Saturday to go slaying rats and goblins
> 
> \- I also waste far too much time checking the source material to get the little details right. For example, I just KNEW Ruel had once mentioned drinking coffee, which he called "morning potion" or something. However, I spent an entire day looking for the scene where he could have mentioned it, only to give up in the end and add it without a clear reference. Lots of wasted time and frustration on my part for such a minor detail. *sigh*
> 
> \- It also doesn't help that the localization is so vastly different across languages, with English being the most broken one of them all. There was this one scene where Dally didn't knew where babies came from, so here's what the localization team made of it:
> 
> French: [No clue as I don't speak French and my file sadly didn't offer subs that actually translated the French meaning, but instead only took the English script and put it as subs. However, it was something about cabbage according to Google translate]  
> German: "I was born inside of white cabbage." (meaning inside one of those things, I think)  
> Russian: "I was born inside a crate of white cabbage."  
> English: "I was brought by a stork." <\--- Now what the actual fuck, man? Now I wouldn't mind so much if the files I used wouldn't use the English script and put them as subs under the original French dialogue. With localization differing so much from the source, how can one possibly stick to the source material? They make my life quite hard...
> 
> But enough whining from my part. Let's get to shipping. This chapter is full of humor, fluff and sexiness, so I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did enjoy writing it.
> 
> Oh, right. This chapter also has mature content in it, which bumps the rating up quite a bit. While it's utterly vanilla and fluffy and I doubt that anyone would really mind, I feel like I should still mention that, yes, there will be sex here.

**How to tame your Iop**

It was nighttime. After having dealt with Rubi’s mess called Rubilaxia, the group had aided Count Wagnar with getting his people to the nearest town at which point he had assured them that he could take it from there. Having no reason to doubt the man, they had bid him farewell and decided to return home. However, since the trip could not be made in a single day, they had decided to make camp in a forest once the sun had begun to set. Now everyone was asleep, resting around the burnt-out campfire. Everyone but Eva, that was.

The blonde Cra lied on her back, wide awake, gazing up into the starry sky with her head resting on a pillow formed by her hands. She had tried falling asleep for hours now but found herself not tired at all. And how could she be? Life was going fantastic for her right now, filling her entire being with nothing but pure excitement. After all, she had just gotten Dally back. She felt so happy about that, she could have gotten up this very second and performed cartwheels en masse, felt like climbing the tallest tree around, stretch her hands high into the sky and cheer at the top of her lungs. She was so overflowing with energy, there just was no possibility for her to even think about sleeping right now.

A shame, though, since everyone else was fast asleep by now. She turned to her right to look at her sleeping knight’s handsome face. Even in his sleep, he refused to stray far from her side, always snuggling up to her while smiling at something he saw in his dreams. She gently stroked his cheek, careful not to disturb his slumber, realizing that she could probably look at him for hours without ever getting bored of doing so. Still, that would not rid her of all her excessive energy, and given how the night was still young, she would rather just spend all that overflowing power somehow so she could sleep during the rest of it than stay awake all night, only to be tired during daytime.

She sat up, throwing another glance into the gorgeous and cloudless sky above, followed by looking at a couple of fireflies floating around between the trees of the forest, illuminating the darkness. It was such a wonderful night, she realized. Should she go for a quick stroll, perhaps? She smiled at that thought. Sounded like a good idea. And yet, such a beautiful night…it would be a waste to experience it all by herself.

She threw another glance at Dally, sleeping peacefully at her side. Her lips curled up into a guilty smile as she slowly lifted a hand to shake him awake, followed by hastily retracting it and turning around, ears drooping and gaze lowered in shame.

She shouldn’t!

But she wanted to…!

The greedy smile returned and her ears began twitching in excitement as her hand began approaching Dally yet again, only to catch it with her other hand and pull it right back again.

And still she shouldn’t! It would be very rude of her to wake him for her selfish desire to spend some time with him.

She frowned. But then again, according to Rubilax, he had slept for the majority of these past months, so hadn’t he slept enough already as it was?

She nodded determinedly. It’s decided. She would wake him.

Her resolve waned. On second thought, let’s not.

She pouted. But then again, it wouldn’t kill him.

She shook her head in absolute refusal, followed by looking forward dutifully. No meant no! She was a disciplined Cra. She would show restraint.

Her hand found its way to her chin, plotting sinisterly as she looked down on him from the corner of her eye…maybe she could _accidentally_ trip over him? Oh, how _clumsy_ of her.

She grabbed each side of her head and shook it fiercely. What the hell was wrong with her? She was supposed to be the calm and collected one, the one making rational decisions. And yet here she was, torn about whether to selfishly wake her Iop or dealing with her sleeplessness on her own.

“No idea what you are doing there, blondie, but keep doing it. It’s strangely entertaining.” Rubilax commented, eying her very smugly. He did try to keep his voice down, however.

Eva flinched in surprise and looked down at Dally’s waist where Rubi rested inside his sheath.

“You were awake?” She whispered in surprise.

“I don’t technically need to sleep. I just tend to do so at night since there is nothing else to do while you bunch waste time sleeping. Imagine my surprise when I sensed something moving and decided to check it out, only to find you doing a very good imitation of Iopish idiocy. Dally-boy is rubbing off on you, I see.” He chuckled quietly, causing Eva to frown at him with a shameful blush.

“Oh shut up. I just can’t sleep, is all.” She told him defensively.

“Then what’s the show for? Don’t get me wrong, it was funny to watch, but that’s not gonna help with insomnia, you know.”

“I was just…” She averted her gaze embarrassedly. “…contemplating whether I should ask Dally if he wants to spend some time with me.”

He eyed her in a bored manner. “What, that’s all? What’s the big deal? Just smack that fool and be done with it. You can even use me to prick him awake if you want.”

“But he looks so content as he sleeps…wouldn’t he be annoyed to be woken up for no reason whatsoever?” She asked him worriedly.

“If it was for no reason, then surely he would. I mean, if Ruel just woke him up in the middle of the night to ask for a glass of water, Percy would probably drag him to the nearest river and throw him into it himself.”

The young Cra sighed in disappointment and let her head hang. “I knew it.”

“You, on the other hand…” Rubilax continued with an implied shrug. “Seem to be a very good reason to die for, so I assume waking up should be fine as well.”

She looked at him in bewilderment, followed by blood rushing straight into her cheeks. He _did_ make a good point. But still…she wouldn’t want to trouble Dally with her newfound and girly desires. Who would have thought that someone like _her_ who had been known to only live to fulfill her duty, would end up yearning for romantic walks with her boyfriend at the middle of the night? She was well aware that this was kinda weird and not something she would usually want to do under normal, non-lovey-dovey circumstances. How could she expect him to understand when she herself had trouble doing so? Love was so complicated. Sometimes she wondered why people kept bothering with it so much…

But then she remembered how it made her giddy from excitement all the time and gave her the feeling like she could take on the world with both hands tied behind her back. She realized that she knew perfectly well why people bothered with love, after all.

However, there was no doubt that it made certain things harder. For example, she had never used to care much about the opinion of others about her but, for some reason, she didn’t want Dally to think she was awkward or weird. Waking people up to ask them to go on a stroll together was definitely weird, she mused. Yet Eva didn’t want to be weird. She wanted to be good company so that this big oaf of hers would stick around, given how much she had come to appreciate his company by now as well.

“You know, I find it ironic you seem to worry so much about bothering him now. Remember how you used to wake him up back when you two had just met?” Rubi said while his eye gleamed in what seemed to be mischievous glee. “You just threw him out of his bed early in the morning, looked down on him coldly and told him he had five minutes to get ready or he would not get to eat breakfast. That was fun.”

Eva cringed. “I was like that…?” Gosh, she barely remembered.

“Yup. And Dally-boy sure hated you for it since you didn’t seem to treat Yugo or Amalia that way.”

“I think I was just expecting more of him at the time. He was the only one besides me who was my age, so I wanted him to take part of the responsibility. I didn’t realize at the time that Iops don’t work that way. They don’t like being ordered around very much…”

“You got that right.” Rubi chuckled quietly. “Percy used to grumble all morning about how much of a pain you were and how little he liked your bossy role. Still did everything you said, though, which is impressing. I guess you had that certain thing about you that just made him subconsciously steer, even when he didn’t like it.”

“He must have had that certain thing about him as well.” Eva admitted sheepishly as she hugged her knees and smiled. “I eventually stopped bossing him around so much because of it and he, in turn, ended up being very dependable in his own way.”

“Iops are still simple folk. Tell them to gather firewood and they won’t do it because they feel like others try to force them to, but merely point out that the firewood is getting scarce and they are the first to volunteer to gather more. It’s fascinating at times, really.” Rubi pointed out. Iops would make for fine subjects if you ever wanted to research humanity. You could observe them for an entire lifetime and still never comprehend them fully. Less because of their complexity and more because of how little sense they made.

“Dally has a good heart. He wants to help, but if others tell him to, he feels like they are making him work and hogging all the credit for it themselves. He likes receiving praise and gratitude after a job well done, but he can’t really claim it all for himself if he was just following orders. I kinda get it. When you are fighting in an army under a general, you become effective, but all your accomplishments tend to become the general’s. Yet, for someone like Dally who always wanted to be recognized as a hero, following a general would have made it hard for people to see his heroic feats. It makes surprisingly much sense once you think about it.”

“Huh, look at you, having figured him all out already.” Rubilax gave himself impressed. “You sure are quick. I have travelled with him for years and never really understood it that way.” Well, he never had really tried that much before to understand him, either, to be honest. “Maybe that’s why he never wanted me to possess him.”

She narrowed her eyes on him knowingly.

“Yeah, or maybe that’s because you tended to do bad things once you _did_ possess him.”

“Oh, right. That, too.” He chuckled. “Good times. But anyway, are you gonna wake this fool or what? The night will be over if you are going to stall for much longer.”

She was seen awkwardly scratching the back of her neck while looking away. “Well…”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. You beat that idiot halfway to death in that darn desert and all he did afterwards was giving you two thumbs up in return. How bad could disturbing his slumber be?”

Eva blinked at him and realized that he was right. The thing was, she had known that all along. Deep down, she had not been nervous about Dally’s reaction upon waking up but more about the things she was going to do afterwards…

For, you see, Eva had decided it was time for her to tell him how much he meant to her. She had actually wanted to do so ever since he had so selflessly saved her life all those months ago. But, well, he had died afterwards and so she had been left without the chance to ever do so. In all this time in which she had thought him to be dead she had come to regret her inability to express her feelings, that she had never told him just how much she loved him. You could probably imagine how unbelievably grateful she was that she had gotten a second chance now and believe her, she was more than willing to correct her mistake of stalling for too long in the past. The thing was…

Gosh, now that she thought about it, it was just so goddamn embarrassing. The tips of her ears flared up with heat as she closed her eyes and shook her head in a vain attempt to rid herself from these silly thoughts.

One would think it was easy, right? Especially since she already knew he felt the same, so all that’s left was basically for her to seal the deal by telling him she loved him as well. Done. The problem was, she had no real idea how she should go at it. There was no doubt that the things Dally made her feel for him were downright wonderful, but what was the best way to put these feelings into words correctly? She knew the fanciest words to describe the sheer beauty of the emotions he had awakened inside her, but what good were those when he wouldn’t understand them? When it came to Iops like Dally, a more direct approach might be preferable…

Like looking him deep into the eyes, slowly drawing closer as she would pull him in for a k-

She buried her face in her hands wincing at the mere imagination. She couldn’t be that bold! She would die of shame!

And yet…if she was completely honest with herself, she really wanted to do just that. To have those strong arms wrapped around her, holding her close. To have him whisper something cute, yet dumb into her ear so she would giggle at his antics. To have him…

…all to herself.

She blushed at those thoughts as she looked down on her sleeping knight with a small smile. So what if it was embarrassing? It was still what she wanted. She couldn’t help but wonder if Iops actually were on to something. Instead of wasting time overthinking simple matters, perhaps it was better to just act on your instincts every now and then. To do just what your heart told you to do, regardless of the possible consequences.

With a determined nod, she decided to do just that by gently shaking her lovely knight awake, whispering:

“Dally. Dally~. Wake up.” To her surprise, his eyes shot open moments later, his hand already taking hold of Rubilax as he took a quick glance left and right. It startled her a bit but she was quick to realize it might have just been a reflex upon waking up at night. It could almost be comical at times how someone who occasionally mistook left for right could still have enough foresight to remain vigilant even in his sleep.

“E-Eva?” He eventually recognized her after a brief moment of his eyes adjusting to the faint light the moon provided them with. His eyes scanned the surroundings shortly after as he asked her with an excited smirk. “What’s wrong? Are we under attack? Perhaps even outnumbered?” His anticipation for battle was clear as day from the way his eyes sparkled at her. The way she saw it, he was more than ready to crack some skulls. But then again, when wasn’t he?

She giggled quietly in amusement but was quick to reassure him of their safety. “Don’t worry, we are safe.” Ironically enough, the message that would have brought relief upon any sane creature only ended up summoning a grimace of great disappointment on the face of Sir Percedal.

“Really? That’s a shame.” He put his sword back into its sheath and leaned back on his two arms, sitting next to Eva who could only sigh at that response. Of course she had to fall in love with the only guy alive who was disappointed to not get ambushed in his sleep…but nevermind that now.

“Sorry for waking you up, but I couldn’t sleep and so I was wondering…” She averted her gaze slightly as she began fumbling around with her hands awkwardly before eventually finding the courage to face him again in the end. “…if you would want to go on a nightly stroll with me?”

He blinked at her, followed by looking at the woods behind her. Why would she ask this of him in the middle of the night, he wondered? But then a certain idea dawned on him and he was quick to close his eyes and nod understandingly and with a smile. His lovely princess needed his aid and as her knight in shining armor, naturally he would be of service.

“Ah, I see how it is. Don’t worry, Eva. I’ve got you covered.” Was all he said as he offered her a goofy grin and a thumbs up, causing her to tilt her head in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

He scratched his cheek and smiled nervously. This time it was for him to avert his gaze in shame as he slowly drew closer to whisper even more quiet than before: “Well, you know…going to the toilet all alone in the dark woods…that can be scary, right? Don’t worry, I get it.” Well, to be honest, he thought Eva was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but she was still a girl so perhaps even someone as strong as her was getting a bit anxious about this stuff? Not that he minded, though. It was kind of cute, so…

Eva’s eyes opened up wide in surprise and shame, followed by grabbing her idiotic knight by his collar and yelling: “Why would I ask y-!“ His hand was pressed against her mouth the very next second, preventing her from voicing her irritation at his ridiculous claim while he was desperately trying to calm her down with a finger pressed against his lips.

“Shhh. You are gonna wake the others like that.” He gestured at everyone around them with his eyes to make her realize he had a point. She could do little but narrow her eyes down on him in annoyance, waiting for him to remove his hand from her mouth.

“Sometimes I could just strangle you, you know that?” She hissed at him once he eventually let go of her.

“That would have made rescuing me quite red-redu-redi-“ He closed his eyes and began snapping his fingers as he tried remembering how that word was actually called.

“Redacted? No…Redundant! Yes, it would have made rescuing me redundant, don’t you think?” He objected with a smug smirk, causing her to silently groan and put her head into her hands, shaking it slowly in utter disbelief.

Cra, please give her the strength to endure this Iop of hers.

“Whatever. You are coming with me.” She thus decided and grabbed him by the part of his cape that was wrapped around his neck to pull him after her annoyedly as she left the camp. However, as annoyed as she was with him, she still couldn’t help but notice how all her earlier nervousness was now gone as well. A smile formed itself on her face soon after. This idiot might not even do it knowingly, but even so, he still ended up helping her out, huh. Before she knew it, her annoyance got blown away as well, thus releasing him from her grasp.

Said Iop used the opportunity to look behind them to see that they were now far enough away from camp to talk normally instead of whispering. Stretching his limbs to shake off the after effects of his slumber, he said: “Well, here we are. A stroll, is it?”

Eve smiled at him. “Yup. Unless you don’t want to. I just figured it would be nice spending some time together.”

“You figured right.” He grinned at her and closed his eyes as he breathed in the fresh night air and allowed his toes to sink into the soft and slightly wet earth beneath him. So many things he hadn’t been able to experience back inside of his sword prison. A content sigh escaped his lips. “Being alive is the best.”

This made her smirk at him. “You bet it is, so you better refrain from dying from now on, okay?”

“I second this notion. Hauling your soul back from the other side was a pain, you know?” Rubilax felt the need to add with a narrowed down eye.

“Geez, give me a break, Rubi…” The knight was seen massaging the back of his neck awkwardly before focusing his attention back at the still smirking Eva, pushing her back with one finger pressing against her forehead. “And it’s not like you are one to talk, nearly drowning on me as you did. I was really worried about you there, you know?”

“I was pretty damn worried myself, actually.” She admitted truthfully. “To think I finally managed to bring you back only to nearly drown in a collapsing ruin…”

“Tell me about it.” He agreed with a nod before shrugging at her with a small smile. “How about we both try to refrain from dying from now on, eh?”

“Said the guy charging in headfirst all. The. Time.” She put her hands on each side of her hips and sighed at him.

“So what? I’ve got the sharpest pair of eyes in the world to watch my back so isn’t it fine?” He told her with his trademark grin as he folded his arms in front of his chest. Eva raised a finger in an attempt to refute him but had to admit that no arguments were willing to form themselves in her mind.

“Fair enough. I suppose that’s true.” She admitted defeat with a smile as she nodded proudly. She _was_ a damn fine shot. And he had proved many times that he could stand his ground on his own.

“With that being said…” She eventually came closer and hooked her right arm into his left, smiling sweetly. “Shall we get going, my valiant knight?”

Dally blushed slightly at the sudden closeness but returned her smile with an eager one of his own, even humoring her by bowing ever so slightly. “It would be an honor to accompany you, milady.”

And with that, they finally began their walk through the forest. At first, Dally was quite vigilant of dangers, assuming, or rather _hoping_ that enemies would lurk in a dark and unknown forest so he could heroically protect Eva from them, but in truth, it was a peaceful night with no creature crossing their paths aside from the occasional rodent rustling in the bushes. Heck, it wasn’t even that dark with the sky being as clear as it was, allowing the moon and the stars to assist the surrounding fireflies with illuminating their surroundings.

Normally this would have disappointed the redheaded Iop but somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to feel all that disheartened about the lack of action. While it may have been true that he was a man who loved participating in a good brawl any time of the day, he could still appreciate the quiet moments in between battles as well. The calm breeze grazing his skin, the soft sound of crickets chirping in the grass…those were nice things, especially since he got to experience them with Eva walking so close to him. She was so close that the pleasant fragrance that surrounded her easily found its way into his nostrils as well. He was far from knowledgeable enough in botany to tell flowers apart…to be honest, they mostly looked the same to him, so he wouldn’t be able to tell you which kind of flower exactly she smelled of, but one thing he was still absolutely sure of: It was the sweetest aroma that had ever tickled his nose. While he wasn’t known to be someone to pick up flowers on the wayside to take a sniff on them, he felt he would never get enough of smelling this one in particular. It was oddly relaxing…

“Beautiful night, isn’t it?” Eva’s voice eventually woke him from his trance.

“It really is.” He had to agree as he looked up into the sky. “Reminds me of that night we formed the Brotherhood. You couldn’t sleep back then, either.”

She shuddered involuntarily just from remembering the biting cold back then. “Right. I had many things on my mind back then, too. You helped calming me down by distracting me.” She admitted sheepishly.

“Ah, so you sought my help this time as well.” Dally deduced with a proud nod, confident to be of service once more. The blonde, however, could only offer him a short giggle.

“Hardly, given how you are the reason for my mental turmoil this time.”

Raising a brow at that, he couldn’t help but ask: “Did I mess up somehow?”

She grinned at him knowingly, amused by his cluelessness. “Nope, it’s the opposite, really. You could say I ended up like this because you ended up doing things just right. Knowingly or not.”

He scratched the back of his head confusedly. “Okay, I’ll have to admit: You lost me.”

She let go of him to position herself in front of him, still grinning. “I am not surprised. I can barely follow my own reasoning these days but hear me out for now. Perhaps it will somehow make sense in the end.”

“Alright, hit me.” The confused knight was seen folding his arms in front of his chest with a serious expression. He was apparently gathering his whole focus on her next words, eager to not only comprehend her dilemma but also fixing it for her. He wanted to help his princess, after all. She smiled at him and his cute reaction. He may have been utterly lost, but that didn’t manage to put a dent into his willingness to fix the problem for her regardless.

“Well, remember how you asked me what I thought of you and I told you I would tell you once you got your body back? I think that moment has come.” She told him seriously, her jade eyes gleaming with determination. This was it, no more backing down, no more shying away. Her resolve was quickly noticed by the other party, who was now tensing up nervously as well as gulping audibly.

 _‘Oh no, don’t get nervous now. You are making me nervous as well…’_ Her inner voice cried in panic as she tried to resist the urge to avert her gaze and back down. However, she managed to get her act together with clenched fists in the end. She was a strong and proud Cra, she could do this! She had kissed him on the cheek before, surely she could manage a real one as well! Press on, Eva!

“Close your eyes.” The blonde Cra thus asked of him as she stepped closer, somehow managing to keep her voice calm in spite of the rapid acceleration of her heartbeat. It pounded so loudly inside her, she was almost certain he must have been able to hear it as well, but he seemed to be far too captivated by her eyes and the beauty that lied therein to notice. He was so ensnared, in fact, he appeared to not register her words at first, having to blink a few times to get back to his senses briefly enough to finally heed her command, albeit reluctantly. It was such a waste to close your eyes in front of such a marvelous sight, after all.

Eva noticed something weird happening to herself as well. She had gotten so close by now that there was next to no room in between them anymore and yet it somehow still felt as if she wasn’t close enough. Where she had previously forced her body to get closer against her mind’s embarrassed objections, she was soon to realize it was now getting drawn in by her lovely knight all by itself. He was like a planet, she was like a satellite in terminal orbit, unable and entirely unwilling to escape his gravitational pull. Her cheeks flared up with heat as she was entering atmosphere…she prayed to Cra that she wouldn’t burn up before reaching her destination.

But she was far from the only one blushing. As she approached her nervously waiting Iop’s lips, she could clearly see the red shade he was developing all around his face. Her left hand found its way to his red mane, gently brushing through his fiery hair playfully in an attempt to calm them both down as her lips began approaching his gradually. Once she got close enough to feel his breath on her face, she eventually decided to close her own eyes as well.

And then, at long last, their lips met.

It was the most gorgeous feeling they had ever felt in their entire life.

Once again, Dally had done for her what he did best. He had obliterated _everything_ around them. The sound of the chirping crickets was gone, as was the rustling of the leaves in the wind. And best of all? The annoying whining of her inner voice that kept trying to hold her back – it had gotten annihilated as well. Now there was only him and her and the peace that surrounded them. Realizing this, she put her arms around his neck, unwilling to let him stray from her too far. This relaxing calmness he provided for her? It was bliss. Before she knew it, she was melting into his arms he had put around her by now.

As for Dally, he was the exact opposite. Nothing inside him was calm. His head was full of fireworks and his heart leapt of joy so much, he was afraid it might accidentally jump straight out of his chest in all its happiness. The inner voice inside him was heard cheering at the top of its lungs and the only reason he wasn’t joining in lied in the simple fact that doing so would have ended this wonderful moment in the first place. Yet he wanted it to never end, hence why he had put his arms around his lovely princess to keep her with him forever.

But alas, such a thing was not to be. As beautiful as the moment may have been, it still eventually had to come to an end. When Eva eventually retreated and he opened his eyes again at last to see those beautifully shining green gemstones that were her eyes - looking back at him with so much love, so much affection to be seen in them - he understood perfectly well the message she had tried to convey to him.

And although she didn’t have to put it into words anymore at this point for him to understand, she still declared with a happy, albeit slightly shy smile: “I love you, Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove. With all my heart.”

The young knight needed a second to take these words in, and so he just stood there with eyes open wide and mouth slightly agape. So many days and nights had he spent dreaming of the day this would happen, never actually daring to assume it eventually would…until last night when she had hinted at her actually caring a lot about him. And now, she had actually gone and confirmed it for real. Wait, this was real, right? This wasn’t merely another dream of his, was it? Had he _really_ been woken…? Or was he perhaps still sleeping back in their camp, having his fantasy create a beautiful story after hearing about Eva’s hinted affection the day before…?

Welp, only one way to find out, right? He raised his right hand, formed a fist…

…and punched himself right in the face.

“Dally!? What the hell are you doing?” Eva exclaimed in shock at seeing him act so utterly incomprehensible.

But her Iop? He just smiled in utter happiness, despite clearly being in pain, or maybe because of that fact? She wasn’t entirely sure.

 “Now you’ve done it, Evangelyne.” Rubi sighed at her. “You have fried the last of the brain cells this fool still had.”

Dally for his part could only chuckle to himself in what seemed to be relief. “It is not a dream.”

“Nope, that really happened. Although I didn’t want to believe it at first, either.” Rubi told him as he rolled his eye. “Never thought I would see the day someone would actually confess to a numb nut like you. You might want to check if she has a fever or something. No one in their right mind would fall for you.”

“You. Silence.” Eva scolded him for his rudeness and flicked his eye to shut him up before facing Dally again with a worried look as she inspected the bruise he had left on his own cheek. “That was to confirm whether you were dreaming? You Iop brain, couldn’t you have just pinched yourself or something?”

He flinched slightly at the touch, causing her to sigh at him. He had used his full force, too. She guessed Iops really never held back at all, not even when hitting themselves for the most stupid of reasons.

“Gotta make sure it actually hurts, or else there is no point. Pinching feels more like tickling or something.” He explained to her, rubbing his aching cheek as well, but returning to his happy grin soon after. “But nevermind that, Eva! It’s real!”

He surprised her by hugging her from one moment to the next, spinning around with her while laughing happily.

“Oh Eva, I am so overjoyed, I could kiss you!”

Giggling at that, the blonde could only reply with: “Yeah, we kinda just did.”

He laughed awkwardly as he released her from his hug, his blush returning to his face. “Ah, right. So…are we now…you know, an item?” His eyes gleamed with excitement and hope.

Her own cheeks flared up as well as she looked away shyly. “Gosh, don’t make me spell out _everything_. It’s embarrassing.”

“Well, if you ask me, your bashful side is also pretty cute, so…” He admitted with one of his all-too-familiar big grins as he scratched the back of his head while the red color of Eva’s cheeks only intensified.

“Great, now you are teasing me, too. As if Amalia wasn’t enough already.” She sighed and pouted slightly, looking away. “But yes, never would have imagined that this would eventually happen when we first met, but I suppose we really are a couple now. That being said…”

The blonde Cra took hold of his collar and pulled him closer to her, eying him sharply. “If you break my heart I am gonna break your neck, got it?”

Dally noticed how she tried to be intimidating but seemed to be far too happy and flustered about their new arrangement herself to look the part. Rather than a warning, it came off like a playful statement you would expect from a stubborn kid. That’s why he could do little but chuckle in amusement.

“You must be joking, Eva. Like I would ever do something as disgraceful as breaking the heart of my lovely princess.” He told her confidently while Rubilax narrowed his eye one him.

“Said the moron who broke her bow, then ran away to die in a desert.”

The mighty and proud Percedal’s posture visibly crumbled for a second before his face was warped into a furious grimace as he took out Rubilax and threw him against the nearest tree with enough force to keep him stuck there.

“And just whose damn fault was that, huh!?”

“Mine or what?” Rubi shot back equally as angry.

Eva could do little but narrow her eyes at Dally in annoyance, not really wanting to remember how hurt and betrayed she had felt back then. She took hold of his ear and pulled on it to get his attention as she said: “I don’t really care about that bow anymore, but if you run away a second time, I won’t forgive you.”

“Ow, ow, ow, come on, Eva. I even came back from the dead for you, why would I ever leave you again willingly?”

This made her drop her frown for a smile, pleased by his cute words. She let go of his ear in favor of hugging him instead, snuggling as close to him as she could.

“I was very sad when you died, you know? Without you, everything around me lost color and my world stopped moving. Sometimes I would watch over my shoulder, expecting to still see you there, grinning back at me, only to be greeted by the void you left behind instead. I missed your voice, hearing you say all these stupid and sometimes cute things you used to tell me. At one point, I even asked Amalia if I could visit the tree of life again, just so it could make me dream of you one more time.” A slightly sad chuckle escaped her lips. “She refused me, fearing I would choose to never wake from that dream again. Sometimes I wonder if she was right.”

“Eva…” Dally’s eyes were open wide from shock as she told him all this. Before he knew it, he had wrapped his arms around her, holding her close with a sad expression, feeling sorry for having been the cause of her grief. “Seems like I always end up hurting you, despite me not wanting to…forgive me.”

She broke the embrace, still with a smile. Her left hand found its way up to his face, caressing his cheek gently. He put his own hand over hers and leaned into it affectionately.

“What are you talking about, you big oaf? You did nothing wrong. You saved me and Amalia. You are a true hero.”

He eyed her sadly as he shook his head as if unsure about that. “Heroes don’t make their loved ones cry. Again.”

“Yes, I did cry. A lot.” She admitted truthfully. “But without your actions, I would have died, so I ought to thank you, my valiant knight, for always saving me as heroically as you did.” She performed a small but respectful bow of gratitude that left him speechless for a second. “But more importantly, I am just grateful that you came back to me. True, sometimes you make me mad beyond belief and sometimes I may think that I really hate you, but in truth, the short time without you has taught me that life without you just sucks and that no matter how much you annoy me sometimes, I still love you more than anything.”

For a few seconds, Dally didn’t seem to know how to reply to these heartfelt words. He had never expected her to thank him, had never even felt she owed him anything at all. He just did what he felt was right. The thing was, he would probably still not know what the right thing was to this day if not for her.

“No, Eva…” He eventually said to her as he put both his hands on her shoulders with a serious expression. “You don’t need to thank me for anything. Rather than that, I should be thanking you for showing me what’s truly important in life. You see, I always wanted to die a legend, but the thing is, once I died and went to the other side, I quickly noticed that the afterlife wasn’t as awesome as my time with you had been. My place is where you are and nowhere else. That’s why,…”

She was surprised to see him kneel down before her, putting his right hand on his chest, right where his heart was. “I, Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove, herby swear on my honor that I shall stay at your side and protect you from any harm that tries to befall you and that I, should someone force us apart, will always find my way back to you as long as I draw breath. My blade is yours, Lady Evangelyne, for as long as you wish.” He took her hand into his and kissed the back of it gently while Eva’s eyes shone like diamonds from the sweetness of his speech. These had been the most beautiful words anyone had ever said to her and she swore on Cra’s name she would place them in the deepest part of her heart, where they would become her most guarded and cherished treasure. Seriously, who would have thought her lovely Iop could be this romantic as well? It was like the surprises never ended with him.

 “And again, he didn’t ask me. Typical…” Rubilax had grumbled to himself in the meantime, followed by rolling his eye. “Hey Romeo, should you really be swearing oaths left and right as you do? What about the last one you swore? Fulfilled that one, yet?”

Dally frowned as he scratched his head. “The one I gave Yugo? You think my dept to him has not yet been repaid?”

Eva could do little but grab Dally’s arm and pull him towards her as if subconsciously declaring that she wasn’t sharing. “If you asked me, I think Dally has paid off every dept there could have ever been, so he is free to swear a new oath which he just did. In other words, that oath is legit. No refunds! None! That knight is mine now!” She declared hastily and perhaps with a bit too much desperation to be heard in her voice, even going as far as sticking her tongue out at the demonic sword still stuck in that tree. Said sword eyed her amusedly and chuckled.

“Easy there, sister. You are being more possessive than most Shushus I know.”

“Am not!” She growled back at him with a raised fist. To call her possessive, pah! These words had been Dally’s precious gift to her. It would have been mighty impolite to void them now. She would keep them in her heart until the end of time!

Dally for his part could only grin at the situation, clearly moved by Eva’s eagerness to keep him around. “At any rate, it should be fine. Oaths are meant to be kept until you die. I did die, so even if my previous oath was not yet fulfilled, it no longer applies anyway, freeing me up to have a new one.” He faced Eva and eyed her with a raised brow. “That made sense, right?”

She giggled and ruffled his hair playfully with a smirk. “Sounds about right to me.”

 “Suit yourselves, lovebirds. Not like I really care who this moron swears fealty to anyway…” Rubi said, clearly unimpressed as he eyed them with boredom. “But be that as it may, how about you get me off this damn tree already, Dally-boy? Lest this blade you just swore to someone else will protect absolutely no one.”

“Yeah, yeah.” The redheaded knight agreed listlessly and with a sigh. “You do realize you only ended up in that tree because you kept being rude again?”

“Old habits die hard…” The Shushu blade responded with an implied shrug as Dally pulled it out with a strong jolt. He was about to put Rubi back into his sheath when a certain idea befell him and he started smirking excitedly.

“Hey, today is a pretty important day for us, is it not, Eva?”

She eyed him questioningly, but nodded nonetheless. “Quite so. What are you up to?”

“Why, just leaving a mark for history to witness. We are legends, after all.” Using Rubilax as a knife, he began carving something into the tree he just pulled him out of. As the blonde Cra looked him over the shoulder, she quickly realized what he was doing and smiled in amusement as well as shaking her head at the silliness of it. Rubi on the other hand could only sigh in resignation.

“How humiliating…a powerful tool of destruction and genocide such as myself…reduced to nothing but a means to perform petty vandalism…”

“Vandalism? That’s art, Rubi.” Dally defended his work proudly as he stepped back to take a better look at it. A carving of a heart with his and Evangelyne’s names in it. “Behold! A testament to our glorious love, Eva.” His hand travelled sideway before him, indicating that he was envisioning something happening there.

"Years from now, people will come to this place and be amazed to stand at the spot where the legendary Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove and Lady Evangelyne became a couple.” He grinned excitedly and pointed at some place at the side. “They might even open up a stand right there selling souvenirs or something. And some people will try to add their names next to ours in an attempt to become just as famous. But they won’t because they are not us. Too bad for them, right?”

Eva could only laugh in her sleeve after hearing about his ridiculous fantasies. “Right, right. Just make sure Amalia won’t find this or she will make you pay for harming that tree needlessly.”

“Nonsense.” He waved her argument off with a shrug. “I know how to handle princesses by now. The feisty one gets a flick to the forehead, the lovely one…” He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer to him, letting her lean back on the tree he had just ‘upgraded’ as he eyed her lovingly. “…gets a kiss on the lips.”

She put her hands around his neck to reel him in with a playful smirk. “I am still her bodyguard so you gotta bribe me with many of those to make me look into the other direction when you plan to flick her forehead.”

“That can be arranged.” Was all the redheaded knight had to say before he gently approached his lady’s lips for the second time that night. They were, without a doubt, the sweetest thing he had ever tasted, their deliciousness even surpassing the sweetness of honey itself while their softness could even turn cotton candy green from envy. He was afraid he might soon reach the point where he might no longer be able to live on without kissing her highly addictive lips on a regular basis, but as he wondered whether putting that spell on him might have been her intention from the start when she had first kissed him, he was soon to realize that it didn’t matter. This trap of hers had been one he was more than willing to walk into without resistance any time of the day.

Likewise, Eva was about ready to melt into his warm, strong arms and would likely have fallen over with how weak her knees had already become if his firm grip on her hadn’t stabilized her enough to keep her standing. Her mind that was normally constantly buzzing with hectic thoughts and useless worries was instead just filled with him. His smell, his touch, his taste. He was so overwhelming, his presence so overbearing that he simply left no room for anything else in there. Sometimes she just wished it could stay that way if only just for the peace of mind he provided her with. There was no need to worry about anything, for his arms were the safest place in the whole world of twelve to be in and likewise, there was nothing else she needed to think about when all that truly mattered was how much he loved her and vice versa.

Unfortunately for her, she knew things could never be this simple, which was why she was the first to notice when a pair of big, wooden hands reached out and grabbed them each.

“Wha-?”

“H-huh…?”

The wooden hands were lifting them up to be brought before the face of a grimly looking tree several sizes smaller than the one they had encountered in that forbidden forest on the day the brotherhood had first met each other. Immobilized by the tree’s strong grip, Evangelyne could do little but eye it with nothing but annoyance, wondering if they had accidentally run into that Soft Oak’s smaller cousin or something. She sighed about their bad luck. Just for once in her life she would have liked to enter a normal forest that wasn’t cursed, enchanted or otherwise magical in some way. Just once! Was that too much to ask for?

“Excuse me, but do you mind? We were kind of in the middle of something here…” Eva couldn’t quite hide her frustration and thus asked with gritted teeth. She really had no nerve to deal with this blockhead with about as much wits as a log would likely have. Seriously, why was it that every time things were going well, someone just had to come up and ruin it for her? And just as things had gotten good, too…that wasn’t fair at all! However, realizing her inability to change anything about her current situation, she could do little but sulk silently.

“You’ve heard the lady. Unhand us at once, or I will cut you into fine pieces of firewood, you ugly rug! I’ve felled demons thrice your size already!” Dally seemed to be about as done with this disturbance as she was, apparently, freeing up his right arm from the tree’s grip and swinging Rubilax around angrily. Unfortunately, however, he didn’t get a good enough angle to actually cut himself free.

The sentient tree eyed them grumpily and growled at Dally in particular once he spotted the sharp tool in his hand. Eva frowned at the incomprehensibility of the wooden being’s words. Unlike Soft Oak, this tree apparently was still a couple centuries too young to even remotely grasp human speech, which would only make things more complicated than they already were. Just where was Amalia and her plant magic when you needed her?

The tree looked down to the base of its trunk and spotted the carving Dally had left behind, then proceeded to yell at the Iop knight some more.

“What’s your damn problem, man?” The redhead yelled right back. “If this is supposed to be some kinda yelling contest, I am gonna win that one as well, so just give up!”

“I think it doesn’t like the new tattoo you gave it there, Dally.” Eva figured, although her guess was as good as any. They might as well have accidentally stepped on some saplings, or bugs or something else this guy might have cared about for all she knew. Who could tell?

Hearing this, Dally rolled his eyes. “Tch. Everybody is a critic these days…”

“Well, I liked it.” Eva gave her honest feedback, averting her gaze slightly with a blush. “It was kinda cute.”

“Why, thank you!” Dally gleamed at her praise, smiling from one ear to the other.

Feeling ignored, the big tree yelled at them once more, causing the redheaded Iop to growl right back at it.

“Oh for the love of- will you shut up already? It’s just a scar! You should wear it like a badge of honor! Like I do! See these demonic marks? Eva gave me those! She’s the best!” He grinned proudly at the tree as he tried shifting its attention to the black marks on his face and hair while Eva nervously wiggled around in the tree’s other hand.

“Those were an accident! I don’t even remember putting those on him, I swear!”

“Well, I do. And it was glorious! We three should do that again sometime, now that we are all such good _pals_ …” Rubi added, chuckling to himself in a pleased way for some reason.

Ignoring Rubi, Dally nudged his head into Eva’s direction, still grinning. “Awww, look at her being all humble about it. Ain’t she the cutest?”

One of the tree’s lower eyelids twitched in utter annoyance. What were these idiots on about? Who gave a damn about anything it was they were saying? Where had these pests even come from? All it knew was that they had shown up all of a sudden, ruined its marvelous bark and then had the nerve to not even apologize for it. The tree knew perfectly well what it needed to do with these intruders. They had to go.

And thus, it reached back as far as it could and proceeded to throw them away with as much might as it could muster, letting out one final growl while it was at it.

The unfortunate couple could do little but scream as they were tossed aside and flew through the air with frightening speed. Eva in particular was very worried about how they would survive the fall when Dally somehow managed to get a hold of her midair to pull her closer to himself.

“Don’t worry, Eva. I got you.” He told her reassuringly, which somehow helped, but still made her eye him worriedly.

“That’s good, but who got you?”

“I do.” Rubilax said with confidence as he took possession of Dally, turning him into the demonified Iop who had once thrown himself in front of her even in face of certain death. His bigger, stronger arms held her close to him as he grinned at her.

“With Rubi’s help, I can even survive falling into lava for a short while, so we will be fine.” He told her.

“Yeah, but it still _hurts_ …” Rubi couldn’t help but add begrudgingly.

“Luckily we are in the middle of a forest. Landing on trees always lessens the pain for some reason.” Or so he said…Eva wasn’t sure whether she should feel relieved about that information or worried about how much that statement made it seem like it might be a regular occurrence for him to land in trees. Also, lessens the pain compared to landing on… _what_ , exactly? The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to know. Just what kind of life had this Iop brain of hers been living up until now…?

“What about a body of water?” Rubi had asked him in the meantime as he looked at something ahead of them.

“That’s very bad. I know it makes no sense but hitting water hurts like getting hit by a sack of bricks.” Dally said with a frown, followed by shaking his head. “I would rather hit land than water.”

Eva closed her eyes in resignation. Her boyfriend was an expert in crashing into things, apparently.

“Well, tough luck there, Dally-boy. Looks like we are heading for a lake.”

The Iop knight’s eyes opened up wide in shock at those words. Now looking ahead of himself, he noticed that Rubi was, in fact, telling the truth. He could do little but curse about his bad luck. “Oh for fuck’s sa-“

Bracing for impact in the best way he could, he tried to position himself in a way that he would hit the surface with his back first, holding Eva protectively in his arms so she would hopefully get affected the least. True enough, despite them whirling around a lot upon impact, Eva had little to complain about aside from some slight dizziness when they finally came to a halt in a rather large lake.

“Urgh…you guys alright?” She quickly tried to check on Dally and Rubilax only to notice that her heroic knight had lost his demonic appearance and was floating in the water with an expression that clearly told her that he had lost track of where up or down was.

“Everything is spinning, Eva.” Her dizzy knight told her confusedly while Rubi yelled at him angrily.

“Get a grip, you wimp! Don’t you dare letting me go here. If I sink, I will possess the first critter I find to beat you up, I swear!”

“Relax, Rubi. I got you.” He shook his head and groaned, putting the noisy blade back into its sheath. “What about you, Eva? You hurt?”

“Don’t think so, thanks to you.” She told him with a kind smile but was soon to drop it in favor of a worried expression. “You, on the other hand, seem to have taken the majority of the damage there…”

Or so she had thought. However, as she tried inspecting his back for injuries, she was very surprised to merely see it having gotten mildly bruised at best. What the hell, demonified Iops were freaking indestructible, it seemed. Or perhaps it was just Dally…

“Well, it smarts a bit, but it’s nothing a good night’s rest won’t fix.” He told her with a carefree shrug, rubbing the aching parts of his back absentmindedly. It needed more to bring an Iop like him down.

“Is there anything sleep can’t fix for you?” She asked him with eyes narrowed down in disbelief. He seemed to think briefly before replying with a nod:

“Hunger.”

“But of course. Why did I even ask?” She rolled her eyes in mild amusement and began looking around them. When she noticed that the lakeside wasn’t far, she uttered a sigh of relief. She couldn’t wait to get out of the chilly water. After nearly drowning in Rubilaxia, she could probably do without swimming for at least a couple more months. Now that she thought about it, the lake’s water seemed to turn even darker, its depth growing endlessly in size as if wishing to consume her. Before she knew it, her grip on Dally became tighter, the lake’s depth somehow becoming less oppressing in his presence.

“What’s wrong?” He asked her with a raised brow.

“N-nothing.” Eva responded hastily and with a crooked grin. “Everything’s fine.”

Following her worried gaze, he wondered: “Something in the water?”

“N-not quite…” She tried dodging the question while looking away in shame. She was a trained soldier who had bravely faced even the scariest foes without faltering. Of course she _wasn’t_ afraid of mere…water.

Dally kept alternating between looking at her and the lake she seemed to retreat from. Eventually he seemed to get the picture and grinned.

“Ah, I see. It’s the water itself.”

“…” She silently pouted, simply cursing his ability to put one and one together when she didn’t want him to only to be utterly oblivious when she wished he would catch a hint. It’s almost like he was doing it on purpose. This darn fool, seriously.

“Don’t worry, Eva. I know how to fix this.” He told her reassuringly as he put his hands together underwater and urged her to put her feet on them. “Just tell me when you are ready and I will launch you right to the lakeside, alright?”

She looked at him, followed by turning around to check the distance between them and the border of the lake. True, it wasn’t _that_ far, but still way further than anyone she knew could throw someone. “Are you sure? It’s quite some ways off.”

The redheaded Iop could only shrug at her unwarranted concerns with a laugh. “Oh please, that’s child’s play. Come on, you ready?”

“Alright. Let’s do it!” Once he had receiving a determined nod as confirmation, Dally proceeded launch her off with enough might to send her flying right into the direction of the nearby landmass.

“Allez-hop!”

Eva had barely left the water when her natural agility kicked in and she effortlessly performed several flips midair before safely landing on her two feet like a cat. Looking around her and noticing that she, indeed, had reached firm ground once more, she couldn’t help but grin at herself happily. That had been fun.

She sort of wanted to do that again…

“Awesome landing there, Eva! I give it a ten!” The redheaded Iop yelled to her with two thumbs up and a wide grin that made her blush slightly, followed by straightening her posture and performing an elegant bow not unlike actors did after a well-executed performance.

“Thank you, thank you.” She continued to play the role with a smile as she watched him swim to her as fast as he could. Once he was out of the water, he proceeded to try and shake himself dry like a wet dog, only to realize it didn’t quite work that way with clothes, much to his disappointment.

“Couldn’t have made it without you, though. It’s amazing you managed to throw me all the way over here.” Eva gave herself impressed, putting her right hand on her chin thoughtfully. “We should consider using that move in combat one day.”

“Heck yeah! The bad guys won’t even know what hit them!” Dally was visibly interested in her idea, given his wide grin and the gleam in his eyes. Well, he was either interested in the idea or fighting in general. Hard to tell, really.

She cleared her throat embarrassedly and rubbed her upper arm uncomfortably. “Also, it would be great if you wouldn’t mention my temporary problem with deep waters to the others. I am sure I will eventually overcome it…just not right away.”

Her redheaded knight offered her a weak smile as he massaged the back of his neck awkwardly. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I can sort of relate to the feeling, really. Master Goultard’s way of teaching kids how to swim was...pretty traumatizing in on itself…”

“No kidding.” Rubi said with a narrowed down eye. “Remember how he just grabbed you by the leg and threw you in the middle of a lake? We nearly ended up on the bottom of that one. That was pretty hardcore even for Iop standards…”

Dally shuddered at that memory. “ _Every living creature knows how to swim instinctively.”_ , he said. Yeah, right. The only thing I knew was how to sink.” He folded his arms in front of his chest and frowned bitterly.

Eva raised a brow in a mixture of shock and disbelief. “Your teacher did that? That’s a joke, right?”

“Wish it had been. Apparently, his dad had used the same method on him, too, so he followed the tradition. Doesn’t explain why he had enjoyed torturing me with it so much, though. I swear he had smirked at me as he had watched me struggle in the water, muttering something about payback time.” He sighed deeply. “Sometimes my master can be quite weird…”

Eva was about to offer him a few words of consolation to cheer him up again when the sudden urge to sneeze stopped her from doing that.

“Damn, the night air sure got chilly now that we are soaked, huh.” She realized as she rubbed both her upper arms for some warmth. “We should probably do something about our wet clothes before we catch a cold.”

“Say no more, my lovely Evangelyne. This knight of yours will start a fire for you right this instant.” Dally reassured her as he sped off to gather every piece of firewood in their direct vicinity the very next second. Not even a full minute had passed before he returned with a huge stack easily twice his size in his arms.

“Think that will be enough?” He asked her, sounding unsure. She half expected him to run back to gather even _more_ so she signaled for him to put it down with a deep sigh before he could speed off again. Arranging the various pieces into a proper pile, she then took out her bow to shoot a fire arrow at it. The campfire came to life soon after.

“You Iop brain, why did you bring so much? Do you intend to stay here for a week?” She asked him with some mild amusement in her voice.

“I just figured more wood meant a bigger fire. A bigger fire means more warmth.” He laid bare his reasoning to her. She raised a finger and was about to tell him how bad of an idea it was to create a huge bonfire in the middle of a forest when another chilly wind grazed her wet skin. Gulping down her objections, she wordlessly took even more of his gathered firewood to feed the fire with it, making it bigger and, thankfully, warmer as well.

“See? It was good I brought so much.” He told her with a proud grin.

She narrowed her eyes on him, not really wanting to admit that his Iopish excessiveness had come in handy this time, but she swallowed her pride and decided to give credit where it was due. “A bigger fire was a good call. But just this once. We don’t want to start a forest fire, alright?”

“Gotcha. I will keep an eye on it.” He told her as he pointed at his own two eyes first, followed by pointing at the fire. “With that being said…”

Eva raised a brow when she saw him removing his cape. By the time he had done the same with his trousers, Eva’s eyes had already been wide from shock.

“W-what are you doing, Dally?” She asked him as she turned away, face beet red.

“What do you mean?” He seemed to be quite confused about her question. “Our clothes are wet, so we ought to dry them by the fire. You should remove yours, too, or you might really catch a cold, you know?”

“You’ve got no shame, don’t you?” She told him off with eyebrows quivering from annoyance. Did this guy think she was born yesterday? As if she wouldn’t notice a cheap tactic such as this to get her out of her clothes.

 _“Nice try, Percedal, but you are way out of your league to assume you can outwit me._ ” Her inner voice declared with a confident smirk.

That was until she narrowed her eyes suspiciously and eyed him critically, searching his face for any signs of ulterior motives, only to quickly realize that there were none. All there was were two pale brown eyes innocently sparkling in the faint light of the campfire belonging to a rather confused Iop tilting his head ever so slightly to the side, not really understanding the question. He really just wanted her to not catch a cold. That’s it.

Her confident facial expression was quick to melt away in favor of a guilty one. Now _she_ felt like the idiot here. Dally, using underhanded strategies? Deploying tactics to trick her? A guy who wouldn’t even use traps because he thought they were dishonorable? She must have had a short moment of craziness afflicting her to even assume so for just a second. This was Dally, you know? The whitest white knight you would ever meet, with an armor as spotless and pure as his soul tended to be. Well, if he had actually worn armor, for the matter. If there was anyone she could lower her guard around of, it would be this adorable fool of hers.

She let out a deep sigh, disappointed with herself. “Nevermind, Dally. It’s my loss. It may be a bit embarrassing but you are right, after all.” With that being said, she slowly started stripping as well, albeit not without a distinct blush on her cheeks, not least because Dally was watching her every move. Sure, he did so with no ill intent whatsoever, but somehow that didn’t make it easier at all. However, once she started focusing on the feeling of her cold, wet clothes finally being shed away from her skin, it actually became somewhat relieving to free herself of them. Onlooking boyfriend or not. She even almost forgot he was there by the time she had laid off the final layer of clothes, leaving her in just her underwear, same as him.

Until she caught him grinning to himself, that was. Subconsciously covering herself up in shame, she asked defensively: “W-what?”

“You’ve got freckles on more places than just your face. I learned something new today.”

This made her relax, narrowing her eyes on him with a smirk of her own. “Oh yeah? And you are tan in places you shouldn’t be.” _Unless you were running around in that desert butt-naked, that is_. Her mind added the last part.

To her surprise, this made him look down on himself in shock as well. “Hey, now that you mention it…how exactly did that happen?” He looked at her again, seemingly worried as he pointed at himself. “That’s weird, isn’t it? Am I weird?”

This made her smile at him in amusement, stroking that hair of his gently. “I don’t really know. All I do know is that I like you the way you are, weird or not.” She scratched her cheek awkwardly and looked away as she added with a slightly quieter voice: “Besides, I think it quite suits you. The tan, I mean.”

His face lit up brighter than a kid’s one on Christmas morning. “Really? You like it? What a relief.” She chuckled at that reaction. Weirdness didn’t seem to matter all that much as long as she was fine with it, huh? The opinions of anyone else had been disregarded from the start. It was somewhat flattering to see how much her opinion mattered compared to everyone else’s, but then again: She supposed she had come to the point where she was basically the same with him.

Rubi could do little but roll his eye. “Oh brother, I think I just threw up a little.”

Dally grinned nervously at Eva as he took his sword out and turned around to scold it in “private”, nevermind the fact that Eva could still hear the entire conversation regardless.

“You just can’t hold off from doing that, can you? How would you even throw up without a mouth in the first place, huh? Rubi, I swear to Iop if you ruin this for me, I’ll…”

“Oh shut up, you fool. Get back to kissing already. At least then your mouths are sealed and I won’t have to deal with this constant flirting anymore. Let me guess, you were about to compliment her freckles next since she complimented your tan. Buergh, if I had known this was awaiting me if I stick with you, I would have rather chosen to get sent back to the Shukrute. At least Rushu would have ended my suffering quickly.”

Eva frowned at Rubi’s words, but couldn’t help but find his idea to get back to kissing _very_ intriguing, especially since they had been interrupted so rudely last time…it was slightly funny how something she had been so nervous about before had turned into something she couldn’t wait to do again after she had tried it out once. Heck, she would do it all day if she could, that’s how nice it actually was.

Meanwhile, the conversation continued with her knight becoming slightly nervous. “W-wait, you mean to tell me I shouldn’t compliment her freckles? Why not? Have you seen them? They are super cute…”

The tips of her ears turned red and twitched happily. They were? A smile appeared on her lips. She wasn’t quite sure why, but she was somehow happy about those words, causing her to giggle to herself. Ehehe, she was cute.

Rubilax groaned exhaustedly. “Who gives a crap about freckles, boy? I know all this flirting is part of this weird human mating ritual you guys keep performing all the time but it’s tiring and so unnecessary. Look, we all know that you two are madly in love. Everyone gets it. So just skip all this bullshit and get to the part you humans do afterwards. Speed up all this shit a little. You win, she wins, I win, everyone wins.”

Dally’s thought process during Rubi’s rant was a curious one to behold. At first, a raised brow and confusion, then shock once he eventually figured out what the Shushu had meant by “mating rituals”. Growing nervousness followed with Dally visibly struggling to find a way to make this talking blade of his shut up again. In the end, Dally gave up and threw the blade away in a panic.

“Oh, you son of a-!“ Were Rubi’s last words before disappearing in the nearest cluster of bushes.

“Sorry about that, Eva. Classic Rubi, am I right?” Dally turned around and tried to laugh the matter off, only to notice how red her face had suddenly become.

“Ah, we should probably hang our clothes up so they will dry faster. Let me handle that.” She quickly looked away and forcibly changed the topic with a nervous laugh.

“Let me help you.” He offered his assistance with that, only to have the blonde quickly deny him.

“There is no need, really. Just sit down near the fire, I will be done in a flash.”

She was seen hastily dashing away with a crooked grin right afterwards. Nope, nope, nope. Way too embarrassing to stick around him after Rubi’s unnecessary remarks. She needed a bit of space to cool off her head that had gotten quite dizzy again now that it had to deal with various noisy thoughts and _explicit_ images she would rather not have or see right now. Stupid Rubi…

“If you say so…” Her knight mumbled disappointedly and scratched the back of his neck while sitting down near the fire silently. He watched Eva gathering two rather large sticks, followed by ramming them vertically into the dirt to create two poles she could later connect with a string of rope. Something she quickly produced out of her bag which somehow seemed to contain literally anything this girl could possibly need at any given time. He frowned confusedly at that. What was this with women and their bags somehow becoming interdimensional gates that allowed them to store in way more things than should possibly fit into them? Was this some kind of magic he was unaware of? Every time he tried storing stuff into bags, they never seem to fit even half as much. How envious…

With the rope sprung between the poles, Eva was quick to hang their dripping clothes on it. They should dry more quickly now that they hung near the fire, or so she hoped at least. Happy with her work, she eventually found her way back to Dally, sitting down next to him. It was quiet now between them, with neither of them really knowing what to say. Awkward.

“You sure work quick.” Dally tried initiating a conversation once more, looking slightly uncomfortable with the silence that hung around them.

“M-hm.” She nodded, hugging her knees and letting her head rest on top of them absent-mindedly. “We will have to make sure our clothes don’t catch fire, though.”

He chuckled quietly. “Yeah, that would suck.”

“Yup.”

Silence followed once more as both of them kept throwing a gaze to the other, but quickly averting it once more before their eyes could really meet.

“How far do you think the tree threw us?” She asked him curiously, looking up at the sky to try and determine their new position with the help of the stars.

“Not _that_ far, I think. We are still in the same forest, at least. Dunno how to get back to the others, though.”

“Heh, you can leave that to me.” She pointed at herself with a confident grin before narrowing her eyes sheepishly. “Once we got daylight, at least.” As if she would try navigating the forest at night. They would likely only get lost further that way.

“Guess that means we will be camping here tonight, then?”

“Seems like we got no other choice.” She sighed deeply. “Sorry, Dally. This only happened because I wanted to go on a midnight stroll.”

But her knight only grinned at her, leaning back on his two arms casually. “You kidding, Eva? This was, like, the best night ever! We managed to get closer to one another and even ran into an adversary!” He frowned in annoyance and looked away with a click of the tongue. “Although it sucks that I didn’t get to turn that darn tree into firewood. That would have been the icing on the cake, you know?” The last bit was added with a cocky smirk, of course.

The blonde Cra smirked as well, eying him mischievously. “You _are_ aware that doing so would have meant destroying your work of art you left on it, right?”

Hearing that, Dally’s eyes opened up wide in shock. He brought his right hand up to his face, gnawing on his thumb’s nail in frustration. “You are right…to preserve my masterpiece, I will have to let that bastard go…how disappointing.” He sighed heavily.

She giggled at that and leaned in on him, allowing her head to rest on his shoulder. “You never change, do you?”

He looked at her and smiled, letting his head rest against her in return. “I guess I don’t. You, on the other hand, changed a lot.”

“How so?”

He scratched his cheek awkwardly. “Well, I don’t know if that’s just me, but I think even though we were close before as well, you used to hold yourself back or something. Not anymore, though. Which is good, by the way. It’s the Iop way, after all.” He offered her his boyish grin at the end which caused her to sigh in defeat and smile.

“You are not wrong, I guess. You may have rubbed off on me in more ways than I could even imagine myself to be possible.” She looked up into the starry sky once more, marveling at the sheer endless amounts of lights to be found on the otherwise so dark firmament. “The Cra way is all about order and discipline. We are told that we are all part of something greater, that there is strength in unity. That’s not wrong, of course, but to achieve unity, everyone has to follow orders, nobody is allowed to stray from their path. As a result, there is a time and place for everything. Love…tends to get shoved aside for later, if at all.” She added the last part somewhat sadly, looking down again in what seemed to be disappointment.

“Why, though?” Dally asked her with a raised brow, causing Eva’s gaze to grow frustrated, although none of her frustration had its source in her lovely Iop.

“Because Cras are supposed to have a sharp and clear mind. Love, on the other hand, is chaotic and distracting. That’s what the instructors tell the recruits and it’s not a lie, but it pisses me off how they conveniently hid the fact that it’s also such an incredibly nice emotion to feel. Sure, when I fell in love, I thought I would lose my mind from all the craziness that started occupying my head, but…”

She took a deep breath and sighed, leaning in closer on her redheaded knight, looking up at him from the corner of her eyes with a small blush on her cheeks.

“What I gained in return was so wonderful, in fact, it was worth every second of craziness I had to endure, you know? To think I almost missed it all because of some stupid teachings from my childhood makes me sad.” She frowned and pouted slightly. “Maybe there is a time and place for everything, but who said love had to come last? If anything, my experience has shown me that life can be quite short, given how I almost drowned yesterday and you were dead already, so who is to guarantee that there will still be time for it afterwards? Therefore, while I still will uphold the Cra way, I have decided to interpret the teachings the way I deem them to be more fitting. And if I have to add some Iop philosophy to make it work, so be it.”

She grinned at him sheepishly and shrugged.

“I’ve come to like a certain man’s Iopishness, after all. And if he is going to be part of my life now anyway, I might as well embrace said Iopishness as well. At least a little, that is.”

Dally’s eyes shone with admiration upon hearing her cute words and he struggled very hard to refrain from tackling her to the ground with a mighty hug in all his excitement. Instead, he found himself getting lost in her emerald eyes once more, getting hypnotized by their shimmering beauty. Before he knew it, his hand found its way to her cheek, caressing it gently and lifting her chin up ever so slightly for him to plant a loving kiss on her lips. From the way her own hand found its way to the back of his head, it became quite obvious that she quite approved of his actions. There, she played with his hair as well as pushed him towards her ever so slightly, getting greedy for his affection. Given how they were now starting to get used to the sensation of their lips touching, they began being more playful with each other, gently nibbling at each other’s upper and lower lips, basking in the cute reactions the other one would offer them in response.

When Dally’s hand found its way to Eva’s back, gently tracing the line of her spine, the sensation of every single one of his fingertips sent electricity through her nerves and fire through her veins. A certain heat began spreading from her very core and she was certain its origin was not the campfire still cracking in the background, its embers becoming nothing but diffused blobs of light in her blurred vision. A gentle breeze brushed their bare skin and yet they didn’t feel the cold anymore, feeling like they could live off the heat of one another alone.

Eva’s hand found its way down from his head and onto his chest where her soft and delicate fingers met his strong and defined muscles, her fingernails carefully brushing his skin that could withstand a thousand punches, yet would become sensitive enough to send shivers down his spine from her touch alone. With how absorbed both participants were in their make-out session, it wouldn’t have been inaccurate to claim that both had been in a trance-like state, which was probably why the blonde Cra didn’t even notice how she had pushed her Iop back so he would now lie on the grassy ground behind them with her leaning over him, eying him with her bewitchingly beautiful eyes.

Dally couldn’t help but notice how said eyes had traded their normally so sharp and focused look for one of affection and passion. Eyes which would otherwise be open wide and vigilant, surveying everything in their direct vicinity for potential threats having instead been narrowed down, clouded in a haze that made her blind to anything but him. The moon behind her shone its light on her, bestowing her with an aura that could only be described as divine, made her shine brighter than the fire next to them. A sight so breathtakingly beautiful, Dally could have sworn the goddess Cra herself had descended upon this world to come before him.

She leaned in on him once more, cupping his face and letting her forehead rest against his. There, she got lost in his eyes as well. Eyes which she knew could grow fierce and almost demonic when he faced his adversaries yet were so gentle and kind when looking at her. They shone with admiration and love, sparkled with awe and devotion. A pair of invaluable gemstones, incredibly marvelous to behold. She was lucky to have this treasure all to herself, and although she wouldn’t consider herself stingy at all, when it came to sharing this one in particular, she would probably display so much protectiveness over her knight, it would even put Ruel’s unbearable greed for money to shame.

“You are turning me crazy again…” She said softly as she grazed his cheek with her fingers playfully. It was barely more than a whisper.

He chuckled amusedly. “You can’t spell ‘crazy’ without ‘Cra’. I think.”

This made her laugh as she hit his chest playfully while shaking her head in disbelief. “You damn idiot.”

As enjoyable as their little moment was, however, it eventually got interrupted by the ominous laughter of a certain ex-demon nearby. Turning their attention towards the rustling sound of the bushes Dally had thrown Rubi into, they were surprised to see a giant moth-like creature emerge from it. Eva immediately turned green from disgust as she witnessed the gobball sized insect which now had Rubilax’ eye implanted on its head.

“Ahahahaha, cower in fear, mortals! For I, the mighty Rubilax, have procured this vessel to exact my revenge on those who have dared to discard me in the bushes like trash! Now, my minion! Go forth and show them my wrath!” He ordered the creature which used its enormous wings to flap through the air effortlessly. However, instead of flying towards the shocked and mildly appalled couple, the insect seemed to be far more interested in the wonderous object that produced such magnificent and bright light next to them. And so, hypnotized by its beauty, the moth-creature chose to approach the campfire instead. Dally and Eva watched the show unfold before them in an obviously unimpressed manner. From the way they eyed Rubi with halfway narrowed down eyes, you didn’t really have to be a mind reader to tell what they were thinking: “Really, Rubi?”

All while Rubi tried pulling the simplistic insect’s attention away from the fire, albeit to no avail.

“Wha-? No! D-d-don’t go there, you retarded creature! That’s fire! It will kill you! Hey, listen to me you damn suicidal critter! Stop!” Despite him pushing and shoving the moth’s head away from certain death, the dumb creature proceeded to approach its own demise with utmost determination. You could have almost called it poetic if it hadn’t been for the fact of how incredibly dumb it was to see the insect’s panicked and frantic movements the moment its wings had caught fire. From one moment to the next, the moth got erased from existence, purged by fire. Rubilax’ sword prison emerged from its ashes, flying though the air to get stuck in the earth right next to the flames where he could do little but narrow his eye in utter disappointment, letting out a deep sigh.

“Fuck my life.”

In front of him, a certain Cra and her Iop stood with folded arms and mischievous smirks on their lips, looking down on the grounded sword evilly.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the miiiighty Rubilax.” Eva said teasingly as she crouched down and poked him playfully.

“How is that exacting revenge thing coming along there, bud? Need a hand?” Dally added with a chuckle as he crouched down next to Eva, grinning cockily.

Rubilax merely looked away in shame and annoyance, offering them a mocking laugh as he rolled his eye. “Ha, ha, ha. How very funny. Look, if this whole adventuring thing doesn’t work out for you, maybe you two should consider trying your hand as stand-up comedians. You seem to be greatly qualified, given how you already look like CLOWNS!”

“Awww, look, he is ashamed. How adorable.” Eva continued her teasing and playfully petted his hilt, knowing full well how much it would annoy him.

“Keep doing that, blondie. You will get all of that back eventually.” He warned her with a scowl.

“There, there, Rubi. No need to get all demonic and evil about it. It’s all just friendly banter, right Eva?” He asked her with a wink, getting an amused smile in return.

“Sure. Amalia does that all the time with me as well. Feels good to be the one doing it instead for a change.”

The Shushu sword sighed in defeat. “Whatever, I guess I will have to get used to it, just like I will have to get used to your flirting.” He then eyed Dally angrily. “But stop throwing me away! You are a Shushu guardian. Take proper care of me for fuck’s sake!”

“Alright, alright! Relax. You behave from now on and I won’t throw you around. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Eva watched them silently and with a smile, hands neatly folded behind her back. However, when a sudden urge to yawn befell her, she was eventually reminded of her need to sleep that had finally returned to her. “As great as it is that we are all bonding with each other, I am afraid it’s time to go to sleep now.” She told them with another yawn.

“What? Insomnia over already?” Rubi asked her with his eye narrowed down in boredom.

“Yup. We had quite an eventful night, after all.” She winked at Dally who could only grin happily in agreement. He then looked around and sighed, however.

“It’s gonna be a rough night sleeping on the ground naked, though. Our clothes are still wet, after all.”

This only caused Eva to smirk confidently as she walked over to her belongings. “Fear not, my lovely knight, for your lady comes well prepared!” She came to a halt before her pouch and waved him over with a finger, silently telling him to come closer. An order he had no qualms following on the spot.

“Alright Dally, I will let you in on a little secret, but you will have to swear to not tell anyone, alright?” She told him quietly with a finger held in front of her lips, still smiling cutely.

Getting excited over said secret, he began grinning from ear to ear. “My lips are sealed.”

She nodded contently, trusting him to keep his word as she opened up her pouch for him to see that it hadn’t been a normal one but in fact, a haven bag all along! Magical energy was whirling around inside, creating a small pocket universe inside the pouch. A marvel of Enutrof magic, truly rare and valuable. And best of all? Belonging only to her.

“Woah! No wonder it fits so much! You actually had one, too!” Dally exclaimed in pure excitement.

“Ruel gave me one in an attempt to cheer me up after your death. It’s small and it used to stink even worse than Ruel’s current one, but I cleaned it out and now it’s neat and homey.” She grinned proudly, but then eyed him worriedly. “Please make absolutely sure not to tell Amalia, okay? This is my only way to have some form of privacy. If she ever found out, it would immediately cease to be _my_ bag and instead become _ours_ as per royal decree, you understand?”

“Hey, I can keep secrets, no worries.” He assured her with confidence, but then massaged the back of his neck nervously. “Rubi, though…”

She flinched in realization and eyed the blade that’s still stuck in the ground a few meters from them worriedly. A glance alone was enough to realize he had overheard everything, given how it was now _him_ to look down on _her_.

“Oh how the tables have turned.” He said with an evil sneer.

She quickly fell on her knees before the blade, folding her hands together with a pleading expression. “Please, Rubi! Mercy! You can’t imagine how it’s like to have a princess breathing down your neck constantly! I need this safe haven, this sanctuary! I can’t let Amalia own my whole existence! A Cra _needs_ her personal space!”

He looked into her eyes which were sparkling with hope and determination and had soon to realize he couldn’t bring it over him to shatter this girl’s happiness after seeing how important it truly was to her. He frowned at himself in annoyance, realizing that he would have reveled in doing so not even a month before, but now that he had decided to become their comrade rather than just someone that was tagging along unwillingly, he had found that he actually _cared_. And that _sucked._ Stupid girl. Stupid friendship. Why did he have to be born a good guy? This was exactly why he had never belonged with demons despite having been born as such. Life sure was cruel, huh…

But then again, maybe it wasn’t all that bad, you know? Sure, it was frustrating to lose your identity and having to reestablish your existence from scratch was anything but a thrilling experience either, but heck, he wasn’t alone anymore and wouldn’t be with these guys…given that they wouldn’t throw him into bushes anymore. If being nice to them was the only requirement in exchange from being freed from the pain of solitude, perhaps he hadn’t stuck that bad a deal.

Plus, he and Eva had one thing in common. They had to both endure Percy’s antics from now on. You could say they were now allies in an unending war against Iop stupidity. If you looked at it that way, it actually didn’t sound that terrible, eh? Oh well…

He groaned at her and averted his gaze shamefully. “Oh, what the hell…fine, since it’s so important to you…but you owe me!”

“Thank you, Rubi!” She gleamed at him gratefully and even pulled out the blade to give it a hug in relief. He blinked at her in surprise. Huh, what was this feeling? Receiving gratitude and kindness…it was quite unfamiliar and yet…strangely pleasant. So, was this the appreciation he had sought from Rushu all this time? Strange how easily it could be obtained once he had changed the target to seek it from. If only he had known sooner, huh…

The feeling was rather short lived, though, given how quickly Percedal took him out of Eva’s grasp. Luckily so, Rubilax thought, or else this strange and tingly feeling of friendship and comradery would have easily overwhelmed him. As an ex-demon, all these aspects of positivity were still rather new to him and he couldn’t quite tell whether he should be feeling relieved or sickened to experience them. So many emotions to re-evaluate, so many things to experience anew. His quest to rediscover himself had only just begun, it seemed…

“You alright there, Rubi?” Dally asked his pal once he noticed his eye spinning around dizzily.

“Your girlfriend can be sickeningly sweet, Dally-boy. I can’t tell if I like or dislike it.”

“I am sure you will figure it out in time, Rubi.” Eva told him reassuringly. He had centuries of demonhood to ‘unlearn’, so this confusion regarding positivity was pretty much a given. But if Rubi really had a good heart like Dally claimed, he would eventually get used to it.

“I don’t even know if I should be happy or angry about these words of encouragement I received…” He groaned in frustration.

“There, there…” Eva patted his hilt, ironically confusing him even more. She felt bad for him, but figured the more positivity she showed him, the sooner he would get to figure out what to do with it. Similar with how you could only gain combat experience during combat, you could also only figure out how to deal with emotions by actually experiencing them. Another yawn brought her out of that train of thoughts, however, reminding her of the original reason for revealing her secret with those two.

“Anyway, you coming, Dally?” She thus asked her boyfriend, opening her haven bag and turning around to him questioningly.

“Right behind you, milady.” He responded with a wide grin and gestured for her to go first. He was a courteous knight, after all. Ladies first and all. She offered him a pleased smile and begun crawling into that bag that seemed way too small to ever fit her. But somehow the bag’s opening expanded while the Cra herself seemed to shrink and she eventually vanished inside it from one moment to the next. Granted, it was disturbing to watch your lovely girlfriend getting devoured by a piece of cloth, but he had seen it happen often enough with Ruel’s bag to know that this was just how these weird things worked. Zero points for elegance but ten for efficiency. Yep, just like Enutrofs liked to work, he mused.

“Right. Guess now’s my turn…” He mumbled to himself as he approached the bag next, but Rubi interrupted him.

“Wait, Dally. Leave me outside, will you?” He asked of him.

“Huh? Why?”

“I need some fresh air as well as some peace and quiet to…think about things…” He said, sounding somewhat distracted, as if he was lost in thought.

“You sure? If you need someone to talk to, I will listen.”

Rubilax eyed him silently for a few seconds as if considering to actually accept that offer, but then closed his eye dismissively. “No, I will have to sort this out by myself first. But there might be a day I will hold you up to that offer. If you really mean it.”

“Sure I do. Pals can always count on each other, right?” He gave the blade his biggest grin as he put it into the ground near the fireplace.

“Beats me. This whole pal business is all new to me, too. Like many things are…” Rubi responded with a frown. He had never had someone to count on before, really.

“Like Eva said, you will figure it out eventually.”

“If you say so…” He looked down thoughtfully and noticed Dally turning around to get into the bag at last. His former demonic identity told him that it would be better to say nothing and bask in the mess that could possibly unfold if he did, but then he shook this way of thinking off and decided that, according to Dally, a pal ought to look out for his friend, so he reluctantly said:

“Wait, Dally. Before you go in there, just to make sure…” He sighed deeply, not really wanting to have this conversation either way. “…tell me, do you still think you were born in a crate of white cabbage?”

A few seconds passed with Dally looking at his Shushu blade confusedly before finally responding with: “Wait, what? Of course not. I had to pay Ruel 5 kamas to tell me, but he eventually explained it to me in detail…” He blushed deeply while adding: “Far too much detail.” He couldn’t believe no one had ever told him this stuff as he had grown up. You would think at least Master Goultard would have taken it upon himself to educate Dally a bit. But then again, the only kind of education Goultard seemed to pass on was combat related, so…perhaps he simply took a hard pass on everything else? Weak…

“Oh thank god…” Rubi mumbled to himself, sounding awfully relieved about the fact he wouldn’t have to be the sucker who got to have _the talk_ with Dally before eventually noticing how the redheaded Iop in question raised a brow at him in confusion. “Ah, nevermind then, Dally. Proceed.”

“Weird of you to bring this up after all this time…” Dally noted suspiciously and folded his arms in front of his chest. “Why did you ask?”

Rubi looked away awkwardly, trying to feign ignorance. “Oh, you know, n-no reason, really. Just wanted to make sure, is all.”

“Weird…” Dally mumbled as he brought his hand to his chin. Why would he…? Oh well, Rubi was just doing Rubi things. There was no point thinking about it.

Rubi watched the redhead turn around to finally make his way to the haven bag and sighed in relief once he was about to enter it. The Shushu blade was lucky to have dodged a bullet there. But then he saw Dally froze with his hair standing up in shock and cursed internally. Crap, he had figured it out…

Dally stormed back to him with shocked expression, leaning in close to Rubi and whispering: “Wait, you think…?” He gulped down audibly and pointed at the haven bag. “Me and Eva…?”

Rubi looked unsure, as if he was shrugging. “Well, possibly? I mean, you looked like you were nearly about to when I interrupted you earlier and now you two are entering a haven bag together while being practically naked and quite obviously head over heels in love for one another. I am just connecting the dots here.”

Dally eyed his sword in utter disbelief as his face grew hot with shame from one moment to the next. He had a point, didn’t he? Now that he thought about it, it was a logical conclusion. His hands found their way to each sides of his head as he eyed the haven bag before him nervously.

“Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. What am I gonna do, Rubi?” He asked his pal worriedly as he took a few steps back with shaky legs, causing Rubi to eye him as if he were to raise a brow. This idiot could face a horde of bworks fearlessly, yet would shy away from something like this?

“What’s the matter with you, Romeo? Didn’t the old geezer tell you how this works?”

Dally frowned and tried to remember his talk with Ruel with folded arms. “He did. The way he described it made it sound like a battle. It’s one on one and you are supposed to make the other one scream, but not from pain but…pleasure?”

“…” Rubi stared at him with a look in his eye that quite literally could be read as “I can’t believe you just said that.”

“W-what? Did I get it wrong?” Dally asked him panicky. He couldn’t afford messing this up now. He had gotten so far…

“Well, not really. I am just amazed how little and how much sense it made at the same time. I mean, do Iops try to relate everything to battle, eating and sleeping to make sense of it or is it just you?”

“It’s easier to understand that way.” Dally explained with a shrug. “Ruel was even nice enough to tell me about all the female weak spots and even tried sharing some tactics with me…” He scratched his head troubledly. “…but it started to get really complicated and I couldn’t follow half of it, really.”

“Well, that’s hardly surprising. You were always more of a practical than theoretical learner…”

He flinched, cursing internally as he hit his palm with his fist angrily, frustrated with himself. “I knew it, so I should have practiced beforehand!” You wouldn’t go slaying dragons without first having tried out your sword on smaller lizards first, right? But then again, who would you spar with in this case? Truly troublesome. This was some next level challenge right there. Like getting thrown into the boss room right off the bat. There was no way to prepare beforehand. Rubi seemed to think the same way.

“Uh…I think she would have killed you if she ever caught you ‘practicing’ with someone else.” Humans tended to be that way, according to his experience anyway. “What are you so worried about though? Aren’t Iops all about following instincts? Can’t get any more instinct-based than mating, no? Even bugs can do it, and they don’t even have brains!” He looked over to the campfire and remembered the moth he had recently possessed, narrowing his eye in disappointment and sighing in frustration at the memory. “Yep. Literally dumb as hell.”

He put a finger on his chin, pondering Rubi’s words. “If you put it that way, it probably won’t be that hard.” After all, he had never kissed before today, either, and he hadn’t somehow screwed that up as far as he could tell. So maybe this was the same thing?

“But then again, most mammals can swim instinctively, too, yet you sank like a rock when Goultard threw you into the water as a brat…”

Percedal’s newfound confidence crumbled and he let his shoulders hang in disappointment. “Are you trying to encourage me or trying to crush my spirit here?”

“Yeah, that’s the thing I am trying to figure out, too. When I was still a demon, crushing your spirit was the right thing to do, but I no longer am one, so should I encourage you instead? But it feels so wrong…” Rubi pondered troubledly and groaned. “This shit is confusing as hell, I tell you.”

“Argh, forget it!” Dally yelled as he ruffled his own hair in frustration. “Iops don’t think. Iops _do_ things. If faced with a challenge, we adapt to it. I can do this. I am Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove!” He struck a confident pose and smirked proudly at himself.

“You know, that would have been impressive if you weren’t currently standing there wearing nothing but briefs.” Rubi commented drily, looking as if he was quite bored out of his mind.

Blushing slightly at that remark, Dally chose to merely shut his eyes in annoyance and move forward. “Shut up, I am awesome.”

Coming to a halt in front of Eva’s haven bag once more, he took one last deep breath and looked up at the sky. “Iop, bless me with courage.” He looked away shyly and shrugged. “Or, you know? Maybe some divine guidance?” He put his hand between him and Rubi so he wouldn’t hear as Dally whispered: “Perhaps share some godly techniques with your favorite disciple, eh?”

Silence.

“Come on, man! This is Eva we are talking about here. I can’t screw this up!” His eyes shone in desperation as he begged his god for some divine intervention only to be scorned with even more silence, causing the young knight to scowl at the sky in frustration.

“Or not. Whatever. Who needs you anyway? Screw you…I will manage this myself, like I always do. Useless gods, feels like talking with yourself most of the time anyway…” He grumbled to himself and opened the bag at last to climb into it. When it came to it, it was best to just count on one’s own strength and instincts instead of relying on whimsical things like gods who would often let you down. This had been one of the first lesson he had ever learned as a small boy and that fact would likely never change. You could pray all you wanted, but real change had to always be brought with your own two hands, or fists. Whichever suited you more. For Dally, it was the latter most of the time.

Either way, after the grotesque sensation of being swallowed whole by an inanimate object, the young knight found himself softly descending to the floor of a bigger version of Eva’s pouch he had just looked at from the outside. On first glance it was a lot smaller than Ruel’s bag but still managed to give him the impression of actually having more available space due to its contents seemingly having been arranged in an orderly fashion instead of having been left on the spot the owner had last used them in. Plus, it also smelled better in here, too.

“Woah.” The young knight gasped in awe as he spotted all those things Eva carried around in her bag. There was a small area with potted plants neatly placed next to one another, being shone on by magical mushrooms that could glow in the dark. Amalia had called them phospores once, or something…if he recalled correctly. The plants’ scent reminded him of the one Evangelyne’s favorite tea had, so this must be where her tea leaves came from.

Not far from there was a small desk with a chair in front of it. A study perhaps, given how there were a bunch of books stacked up next to it. Given the fact that the candle on the desk had nearly used up all of its wax and was in desperate need of a replacement, it was fairly obvious to even him that whoever used it had spent plenty of time sitting there. From the looks of it, someone had even written something into what appeared to be a journal recently. The handwriting was quite elegant and fancy, making it hard to read in the dim light, which was probably for the better, given how girls very much disliked when you read their journals. He would know, having accidentally done so with Amalia’s once. Granted, it might have been a bad idea to read it out aloud to Ruel and Yugo as well, but at least everyone got to share a hearty laugh with each other that way before getting nearly squeezed to death by thick and thorny vines. He grinned at the memory. Good times.

He could also spot a workbench with various crafting materials and bow components still resting on it. Undoubtedly a place to keep your weapons in shape which he would have to do as well, if it weren’t for Rubi being nearly indestructible and therefore quite user friendly to wield. A luxury Eva didn’t seem to have, apparently, or else this stuff wouldn’t be here, he mused. He briefly considered looking out for a Shushu bow for her to use from now on, but immediately frowned once he realized how much of a pain Rubi could be at times. Twice the amount of Shushu weapons meant twice the power, but it would also mean they would get twice the annoyances going on their nerves constantly. Not to mention those pesky Shushus were always trying to possess you. Sure, Rubi was a good guy now, but he was an exception. Dally frowned bitterly at the image of Eva getting mind controlled by one of these monsters. Eh, perhaps she was better off with just a normal bow then. Better safe than sorry, right?

As he moved on, he eventually spotted Eva, hastily throwing in stuff into a chest and slamming it shut, followed by wiping off some sweat that had gathered on her forehead as she sighed in a mixture of relief and exhaustion.

“Need some help?” He asked her, visibly startling her as she spun around to meet his gaze. Her shock was soon to fade, replaced by a gentle smile.

“Ah, there you are. Nope, I am good.” She told him with a quiet laugh, fiddling around with her hands awkwardly as she casually pushed the wooden chest back against a pile of other stuff with one foot. “Truth to be told, I kinda forgot I left a mess last time I was in here, so I appreciate that you left me some time to tidy up the place a bit before coming in. What can I say, I never actually thought I would eventually end up inviting someone else in here, haha.”

He offered her an understanding smile and shrugged. “You didn’t have to go through the trouble, really. We’ve been to Ruel’s bag and after seeing that junkyard, nothing’s gonna shock me anymore. Compared to that, this actually puts the ‘haven’ into ‘haven bag’, you know?” He grinned at his own little joke and was pleased when he heard her giggling a bit in amusement as well.

“I am not sure how much of a compliment that is, since even a waste bin would look heavenly next to Ruel’s bag while also smelling three times more pleasantly, but I appreciate it nonetheless.” She spread out her arms excitedly to proudly present her personal sanctum with a big grin. “Anyway, welcome to my humble bag. It isn’t much, but please do feel right at home.” She scratched her cheek shyly, though, looking slightly ashamed about something.

“To be honest, I am still missing many necessities in here and I can’t offer you much in terms of food, but at least it’s better than sleeping out there on the ground, no?”

He smirked at her. “You kidding? This place is awesome. I would kill to have one of these things for myself.” His eyes shone as he pictured how the inside of his own haven bag could look like. Full of training dummies and weapons. He gasped briefly once he realized: He could open up his own Dojo or something! Rad! But he digressed…shaking off those delusions, he quickly added: “Anyway, if you need some help setting this place up, just give the word. I can place whatever furniture you have wherever you need.” He flexed his right arm and patted his muscles confidently. Just leave the heavy lifting to him.

“That’s kind of you, but I will first have to buy more stuff to place in here first. Unlike Ruel who only claims to be broke, I actually kinda am…” She admitted with a deep sigh, putting both her hands on her hips. She didn’t need to tell him she had blown almost all her kamas trying to spread the legend of the redheaded warrior all around the world. Sure, it had seemed like a nice gesture for a fallen hero, but kiiiiinda made her seem like a groupie now that it turned out he wasn’t really dead. Realizing this, she immediately buried her face in her hands, feeling nothing but shame and regret. How embarrassing…! Oh well, if the book sold well enough, she would eventually make a nice profit from it in a few years, so who knew…maybe it hadn’t been a total bust to write it?

She looked at her redheaded knight from the corner of her eyes. Oh Cra, just please don’t let him actually read it. You had to be careful with stroking this man’s already bloated ego any further. She would never hear the end of it…

“Something wrong?” The redheaded Iop asked her while tilting his head in wonder, only to see her gently shaking her head, followed by taking him by the hand while rubbing her eyes tiredly with her other one, unbeknown to her that her mere touch already sent electricity through his body.

“This way, my valiant knight. Let’s finally get some rest before the night is all over, shall we?”

“R-right.” Dally muttered absent-mindedly, noticing how his own stare was now fixated on her well defined figure as she led him through a narrow corridor of boxes and sacks filled with adventure gear like tents, torches and various other stuff he did not give a crap about, now that her captivating body had his undivided attention. As he watched her hips swaying from left to right ever so slightly with each of her steps she made, he silently wondered if her walk had always been this mesmerizing. Like a Xelor’s pendulum rhythmic swaying it slowly casted a spell of hypnotism on him he neither could nor wanted to escape. He also couldn’t quite tell if he should thank that tree or curse it for throwing them into that lake in the first place and causing them to end up walking around in just their underwear. On one hand, he got to see so much of her marvelous and smooth skin, but on the other hand, it filled him with the desire to get over there and kiss every single one of her adorable freckles one. By. One. And don’t get him started with how desperately he wanted to feel up that plumb, ripe bottom of hers that was _still_ rhythmically swaying before him.

He gulped down all that saliva that gathered in his mouth as he shook his head to get back to his senses. By Iop, how much he wished Rubilax had just kept his mouth shut to keep his oblivious mind off these thoughts until he would eventually make the connection himself. Sure, he was often teased by his peers for being slow on the uptake, but sooner or later, he always got the picture when it really mattered. It would have been way easier for him to catch on to certain cues he was sure Eva would have given him since she was a smart girl who knew how to steer him into directions without him even noticing he was being guided until way after it had happened. Instead, he was now made aware about all of this from the get-go and he suddenly didn’t know where to even look anymore.

Now that his eyes were open to all these _sexy_ aspects of his girlfriend, they started getting registered by his adolescent mind, making them pretty much all he could think about anymore. Like a dam that had been violently broken, letting an uncontrollable number of stimuli flood his brain without restraint. Suddenly, he very much knew what he needed and wanted to do as he realized his Iopish instincts didn’t leave him hanging, but man was he shocked at the sheer animistic nature of all this carnal desire welling up inside him. He almost felt like a wolf ready to devour a sheep and that was the exact problem. As a knight, he wanted nothing more than to protect and cherish this woman. As a man, he was the very thing he had sworn to protect her from. He soon realized that desire was one heck of a powerful emotion to experience, and the beast that had been unleashed inside him? It was not one to be easily tamed.

But then he smirked confidently at himself. He was Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove, the Iop that somehow managed to tame Rubilax back when that guy had been nothing but a demonic mess of hatred and despair, so how bad could it be to keep his _human_ desires in check? He figured he should be fine as long as Eva didn’t turn around to give him a clear view on that ample chest of hers that he swore looked so soft, he bet burying his face in them would make heaven feel like child’s play by comparison. He caught himself grinning stupidly at his own perverted fantasies and quickly punched himself before Eva could notice anything.

 _“Get a grip, Percedal! Evangelyne is a classy woman. You need to show some class as well, not whatever_ **this** _was just now.”_ He scorned himself bitterly in his mind. _“Come on, focus!”_

“You alright there, Dally? You’ve been awfully quiet for a while now.” She asked him as she turned around halfway to look at him with a smirk. “Don’t tell me being to a girl’s room got you all nervous?”

Dally looked at her in shock. Could this girl read his mind? He sure hoped she could not…he would be in quite some trouble if that was the case.

“M-me? N-nervous? Ridiculous.” He tried to laugh it off with a crooked grin as he avoided her mischievous gaze.

“Hmm, is that so? Alright then.” Eva chose to give herself oblivious to his nervousness, figuring his flustered state had merely something to do with him having entered the unknown territory of a woman for the first time. Not that she would complain…a flustered Dally was cute, too, you know? 

She eventually came to a halt, letting go of his hand. While Dally was contemplating whether to silently cheer over or bemoan the sudden loss of skin contact for various reasons, the blonde Cra proudly presented her last treasure she had stored away inside of her haven bag.

A bed.

A small bed.

Please don’t tell him-

“Ta-da! I actually got a bed in here. We can actually sleep on a soft mattress like civilized people!” She grinned proudly, although not without realizing a crucial flaw in her plan as well, given how she lowered her gaze apologetically. Scratching the back of her neck awkwardly, she blushed ever so slightly as she threw glances at him from the corner of her eyes. “Although it is rather small. As I said, I never thought I would be bringing guests here, so I don’t have any guest beds or anything. But don’t worry, I am rather slim, so we should be able to share the limited place if we cuddle a bit.”

A certain part inside him cheered: _YEEEEEEES_

Another one screamed: **NOOOOOO**

Oh Iop, please have mercy on him. Wait, maybe he could…

“That won’t do! As a man of honor, I shall offer the bed to the lady while I make do with the floor.” He declared decisively. Hah! Nailed it! Now he wouldn’t have to put Eva into any unnecessary danger anym-

“Absolutely not!” She was quick to shoot him down determinedly, albeit very hastily and with a panicked expression. Realizing herself how weird that must seem to him, she was quick to clear her throat to try and find a reasonable explanation to seem less suspicious. No way in hell would she let this chance slip through her fingers. She could fall asleep being held by these big strong arms, nudging herself closer into his embrace to get engulfed in the warmth of his gorgeous body. Best way to fall asleep. Ever. She bet she would sleep like a baby that way. She absolutely had to try. That’s why she came up with:

“What kind of girlfriend would I be if I were to let my boyfriend sleep on the cold, hard floor while lounging away in my warm, soft bed. You are my knight, after all. Not my dog. So it’s fine, it’s fine! Please, lie down. I insist.”

Well, since she insisted…

Argh, no! This was bad! Definitely bad! He needed to find a way to talk himself out of this…

But that was the problem now, wasn’t it? In a contest of strength, Dally was unmatched, but a battle of words was more in her favor…especially considering how easily she could render him speechless by merely giving him _that_ look.

You see, Eva was a very smart woman. When they had first met, she had tried ordering him around like a subordinate soldier, which hadn’t worked so well for her. You would think she would grow frustrated and stop bothering, right? Except, she had instead changed her approach. Instead of enforcing her way on him, she had developed a technique he would always refer to as _the_ look. The one where she kept looking up at him with those sparkling eyes of hers whenever she needed something of him, accompanied by that adorable smile that could even melt the eternal ice wastes of Frigost. If she felt especially crafty, she would even add a cute and soft “Please…” to that…whenever that happened, his mind would always black out and by the next time he came to his senses, he had already caved in and done the thing she had asked of him. Yeah, it was a hellishly scary technique, let him tell you. It kinda looked like the one she was using right now and-

…

Wait a minute, when had he lied down in that bed, exactly?

Goddamnit, this girl was good!

The bed had been pushed against the bag’s wall, leaving him no room to back out as Eva had climbed into the bed after him, thus preventing him from getting back up from that side either. However, as she came closer and closer, wrapping her arms around him and snuggling up to him with a content smile on her lips, he momentarily forgot why exactly this was supposed to be a bad thing again. She smelled nice, was warm and adorable to boot and she was so soft that hugging her felt like hugging a big pillow.

He sighed dreamily. Sleeping like this would be heaven.

…at least until his mind would remember what exactly that soft mass on her chest was that he was readily about to bury his face into.

“Ack!” The young Iop tensed up and nervously turned around. Urgh, close call….if he had proceeded doing what he had just been about to do, Eva would most likely have killed him…! The Cra in question could only blink in bewilderment about suddenly being faced with his back from one second to the next.

“Dally? Is something wrong?” He heard her ask in confusion. Hardly surprising, he thought, given his suspicious actions…

“A-ah, no. E-everything is fine. I just couldn’t relax lying like that, so I had to shift things around a bit.” He lied with a guilty grin she luckily couldn’t see.

“I see.” She nodded understandingly and for a moment Dally thought he might have been in the clear, but then he felt Eva’s arms wrapping around him from behind as she snuggled closer once more with a content smile. Being the big spoon was fine, too, she thought. It was still odd, though…he was acting somewhat distant compared to earlier, when he had basically cuddled her to death. She frowned suspiciously…could he be hiding something?

In the meantime, Dally was busy avoiding stepping on landmines, but every time he seemed to avoid one, he accidentally stumbled upon a whole new cluster of them right afterwards. True, he might have momentarily dodged a bullet  by facing away from Eva and her incredible sexiness, but…somehow she felt even _closer_ the way she was hugging him from behind now, with her breath gently tickling his neck and her gorgeous chest pressing against his back in its entirety. Weirdly enough, not actually seeing her breasts only made it worse, too, since it resulted in his fantasy to try and fill in the gaps. And that couldn’t possibly end in a good way…

As became clearly evident when a certain body part of his came alive, his briefs suddenly feeling way too cramped to house his Iopish manhood. Dally sighed in disappointment. He had held out so long only to fail in the end with suppressing his urges. But hope was not yet lost…if he managed to stay in his current position, maybe Eva wouldn’t notice until she fell asleep…

“Nope, something’s definitely weird.” Eva concluded annoyedly as she eyed him over his shoulder, causing him to nervously flinch and hide his aroused manly parts under both his hands so she wouldn’t see. What the hell, was this Cra psychic or something!?

“W-what is?” Dally asked her nervously, feigning ignorance.

“You are. You think I wouldn’t notice? Normally not even a hurricane could rip you off me and suddenly you are staying away on your own accord? Something’s wrong and you are trying to hide it, so what is it? Are you feeling sick? Did you catch a cold?” She asked him suspiciously as she touched his forehead to check if he had a fever. Well, he was awfully hot, so maybe he really had one? That’s when her eyes travelled down to his hands and noticed him trying to hide something from her sight which immediately caught her interest. An injury from the fall before, perhaps? That would be so typical for him to hide from her, she thought. Narrowing down her eyes on him in suspicion, she let her hand travel down towards his to remove them from whatever they were trying to hide from her.

“W-wait, Eva! Don’t!”

But she wasn’t listening to him at all. Removing his hands determinedly, she was immediately greeted by…something very big pressing against the insides of his briefs. She blinked a few times in her perplexment before realization eventually befell her and her face grew hot from shame.

“O-oh.” Was all she said as she hastily let go of him and turned around awkwardly, trying to hide her blush with her hands. So that’s what it had been…now his actions kind of made perfect sense…

She furrowed her brows. In hindsight, maybe she should have been able to figure it out on her own instead of acting like such an idiot right now, but then again, he hadn’t shown any such reactions earlier so it had totally slipped her mind that _this_ could have been the reason for his uncharacteristically distant behavior.

“Ah, please don’t be mad, Eva. It’s just…Rubi said some things and suddenly I couldn’t stop noticing how…well…hot you are and…well…this happened.” She heard him suddenly try to explain himself worriedly, thinking he had somehow screwed up. This made her merely face him again, albeit still blushing madly.

“You Iop brain, why would this make me mad? It’s a perfectly normal, natural reaction.” She looked away embarrassedly, playing around with a few strands of her hair. “In fact, I think I should feel flattered that you react that way towards me.”

“Well, naturally. I mean, have you looked at yourself…?” Dally couldn’t help but note as he scratched his cheek awkwardly. “Sometimes it’s hard to take my eyes off you, you know? No matter what you do, you are either super cute or smoking hot…and it’s captivating my mind all the same.”

She pressed a finger against his lips, eying him with a stupefied grin. “S-s-s-stop! I can’t handle all these cute words at once. My mind will melt.” She closed her eyes and shook her head excitedly, unable to contain her happiness over his compliments. Too much sweetness would make her go crazy again, no doubt.

This made him smirk at her as he leaned over her to kiss her lips gently. “See, now we are back to cute again.”

She accepted the kiss with no resistance, seemed to welcome it even. The faint voice of reason that kept screaming at her to be on her guard was quickly disregarded in favor of focusing more on her redheaded knight and the sweet things he said and did to her. Ah, she was getting infatuated with him again…maybe her voice of reason was right to warn her, after all? Wasn’t this getting…dangerous?

But as her lovely Iop kept showering her with his love and affection, gently placing kisses all over her, her ability to care about that fact seemed to get dismantled systematically with each move of his body. Speaking of his body…now that he was so awfully close, she actually got to feel all of these hard and defined muscles pressing against her. Cra, wasn’t this kinda…sexy? Especially that hard bulge between his legs that had kept grazing her thighs for a while now. Say, wasn’t that actually a pretty big package he sported there? Granted, she hadn’t been unfamiliar with the idea that a man’s privates would grow to enormous sizes…this phenomenon had been rather well described in most of the, well, _adult_ novels she had been reading from time to time, after all. But she had never _actually_ seen this herself. A curios and adventurous smirk crept up her lips as she considered whether or not it would be fine to take a peek, perhaps. For science?

 _“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Time out, girl. Now listen here just a second.”_ Eva’s mind suddenly constructed a place that looked like some sort of office before her inner eye. It was very structured and tidy with all of the files and documents neatly stored away in cabinets. A small wooden desk stood in front of her with a clone of herself sitting behind it, facing her with a calm expression and her hands casually folded before her. This copy of her clearly was supposed to be another version of Eva, albeit this one was entirely clad in formal wear as you would expect of an office clerk. Her hair was still long but stuck up neatly behind her head and she also wore glasses for some reason the real Eva couldn’t quite comprehend. Cras didn’t wear glasses. They all saw perfectly fine for miles. During thunderstorms. With one eye closed.

The formal Cra seemed to be able to notice Eva’s concerns which was why she seemed to blush slightly as she pushed the glasses back up against her nose. “ _Those are there to make me look smarter. Are they that bad?”_

Eva shrugged, more concerned with this place than this imaginary Cra’s weird fashion sense. One second she was having a good time with Dally in her haven bag and now she was sitting here with a serious looking copy of herself for no reason whatsoever. She sighed at that, wishing she could just get back to the place she had left behind unwillingly…

 _“That’s the exact problem, Evangelyne.”_ Her serious clone told her as she took out an abacus to perform some calculations in her head, pushing stones left and right in quick succession. _“According to my calculations, this whole situation is getting way out of hand. I mean, I know you are very much in love and all, but you just shared your first kiss with Dally today and now me ware already moving on to intercourse? Aren’t things progressing a bit too fast here?”_

Eva looked down, as if a bit ashamed. Well, now that this girl mentioned it…maybe she really was getting a bit carried away…? But then again, now that she had already started treading down the path of love, she was naturally curious where it might lead her…

Considering how nice the trip had been so far, it may not have been unreasonable to be excited about how much better the rest could possibly become. Plus, in the books she had been reading, sex had always been described in so much _detail_. Sure, it sounded awfully naughty and embarrassing, but the characters in the novels always seemed to enjoy it. It couldn’t be helped that she would grow curious about it as well now, could it?

 _“You are absolutely right there, Evangelyne.”_ Came the voice of yet another copy of herself, albeit not the proper one before her. As both, the real Eva as well as the proper clone raised a brow at the newcomer that had just appeared next to them out of thin air, said newcomer merely took a seat next to Eva, grinning widely at her and offered her a handshake.

Contrary to the proper Cra, this Cra barely seemed to wear anything at all aside from the bare necessities to keep her private parts hidden. Her hair was long and open and her skin was adorned with what seemed to be tribal markings of some sort. Albeit this version of Eva lacked very much in the clothing department, she still seemed to make up for that with a very impressive aura. Everything around her seemed to radiate in what seemed to be a mixture of fire and energy. This woman literally glowed from excitement. Eva wasn’t sure whether it was because of that aura or not, but this copy of hers seemed a lot sexier and mature for some reason, too. Wow, could she really look like that?

_“Greetings, I am Desire. I see you have already met Reason, so let’s get straight to the point.”_

Eva eyed the new copy of herself confusedly as the strangely cheerful Cra shook her hand with quite some vigor. The real Eva was briefly worried her sparsely clothed copy might accidentally yank her arm off or something. Strangely enough, though, the moment her hand had touched the fiery woman’s one, a certain warmth and energy had started spreading all around her. She felt like she could challenge the world like that.

 _“Sex is awesome. Please proceed immediately at your heart’s content.”_ She explained to her briefly before pulling her out of her chair, turning her around and trying to shove her away from Reason and out of her office. Presumedly back to Dally where the action was going on.

Eva raised a brow at that. Wait, that’s it?

 _“Yup. There is nothing to talk about here. Sex is something to experience, not to theorize. Which is why talking about it to Reason is nothing but a waste of breath.”_ Desire told her casually, still trying to push her out of the office.

 _“Now hold it just a damn second there!”_ Reason suddenly got in their way, blocking them from leaving the office with quite an angry expression. _“You can’t just barge in here, Desire! This is **my** office. And I wasn’t done talking.”_

_“But talking is all you ever **do**. Don’t do this, don’t do that. Bor-ing. Let Eva have fun for once. It won’t kill you.”_

_“And how would you know that?”_ Reason eyed Desire accusingly as she walked up to the nearest file cabinet to sort through its contents hastily. _“We have no previous experience about intercourse stored anywhere. As far as I am concerned, there is no reason to assume it **wouldn’t** kill us. We are still unprepared! We must abort!”_ Reason smacked the cabinet shut and declared her absolute refusal to proceed like this to Desire.

Eva watched Reason approaching her kindly, taking Eva’s hand into hers with a smile.

_“Now please listen to me, Eva. I am the one who kept you safe until now. Whenever you were about to face something dangerous, I was the one who warned you about it. I have saved you many times from doing dumb mistakes, so won’t you listen to me again? This is a mistake. Let’s stop, alright?”_

Ah, but…Eva’s gaze went downwards in sadness. Maybe she was right, after all? There was no reason she had to go all out tonight, was there?

Desire was seen folding her arms in front of her chest, uttering a frustrated “Tch.”

_“Don’t listen to that coward. Sure, she keeps you safe, but she is also keeping you from a lot of fun, too. Wasn’t she the one who told you not to fall in love with Dally, too?”_

Eva frowned at that, stepping away from Reason in what seemed to be defiance. Yeah, what the hell was up with that?

Reason started sweating nervously. _“Oh, come on! You know why I made that call. There was no reasonable data to support the possibility of it being a good choice. I’ll admit, I may not always be right, but I tend to be 90% of the time.”_ She pushed up her glasses confidently and smiled. _“That’s a good enough ratio to warrant listening to me, no?”_

Eva folded her arms in front of her chest and eyed Reason critically. Yeah, it was a good ratio, but she had still been terribly wrong before, so she could be wrong now, too. If Reason was all about using references to determine whether an option was a good one to take or not, where was her data that suggested that doing lewd things with Dally would lead to bad consequences?

Reason lifted up a finger to signal for her to wait a second as she ran up to another file cabinet to search for Eva’s requested data. Soon after, she produced a bunch of paper scrolls she hastily started showing to Eva.

 _“For one, there is pregnancy. Nasty stuff, or so I have heard. Makes you get infested with a parasite for approximately nine months which then get very hard and painful to remove again…”_ Reason told her while pointing at a picture of an embryo on her scroll, then compared it to a picture of an actual parasite from a different scroll.

_“Those are called children, Reason.” Desire deadpanned, clearly not impressed. Reason was quick to object to that._

_“Wrong! That’s what they become once removed. Until then, by definition, they behave like any common parasite! Now Eva, why would you willingly get infected by parasites?”_

Eva seemed to be worried for a second before she suddenly remembered something and started scowling at Reason. Wait a second, just like Iops have lower intelligence, so did Cras have lower fertility…to assume she would get pregnant just like that was quite…unreasonable.

Desire chuckled amusedly and raised her hand for a high five to share with Eva which the latter did with a smug grin. Good one.

Reason flinched and proceeded to run to the next cabinet. _“Hold on, I have more!”_

While Eva waited for her to gather more proof with a bored expression, she noticed how Desire had walked over to a different cabinet and produced a book Eva quickly recognized as one of the adult ones she had read recently. Her eyes opened up wide in shock once she saw Desire casually lean against said cabinet, flipping open the book and starting to read out one of the more _explicit_ passages. She did so with quite the expressive voice that could have easily put an experienced actor to shame, sounding short on breath as she moaned and gasped while reading out the heroine’s inner monologues. Eva and Reason cringed in utter shame and quickly stormed her from one second to the next, faces gleaming red from embarrassment. Eva pressed Desire’s mouth shut while Reason took the book out of her hands to store it away in a different cabinet hastily.

 _“D-d-don’t read erotica out loud all of a sudden. Don’t you have any shame?”_ Reason tried to scold Desire who only shrugged at that casually.

Eva eventually removed her hand from Desire’s mouth with a deep sigh, happy that it was over. However, the wilder clone only smirked back at her knowingly.

_“Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?”_

Eva looked away embarrassedly, not really wanting to admit how interesting it really had sounded.

 _“More like embarrassing…”_ The proper clone whined as she hid her still blushing face from sight with both her hands. _“Imagine we actually sounded like that…”_

Desire’s eyes began shining in anticipation. _“Yes, imagine how good we would have to feel to produce such sounds!”_

Eva gulped nervously. My, my, was it her or was it getting hot in here?

 _“No, Eva! Resist!”_ Reason warned her by grabbing her by her shoulders, trying to shake the madness out of her. _“You wouldn’t want Dally to hear you like this, right? What would he think?”_

 _“Oh I am sure he would think very highly of it…”_ Desire told Eva with a playful wink before addressing Reason listlessly again. “… _why do you care anyway, Reason? By the time we are at the point to sound like that, I can guarantee you that neither of us will be clear enough of mind to even remotely care about how embarrassing it is.”_

Reason gasped in utter shock. _“You mean we will be out of it?”_ She hastily formed a big X with both her hands and yelled: _“Then we absolutely can’t! A Cra’s senses always have to remain sharp, right Eva?”_

Eva massaged the back of her neck awkwardly. Well, technically yes, but actually…whenever Dally kissed her and made her _stop_ thinking about everything around her so much…those moments were actually kind of nice, you know? To imagine she would lose herself in her own pleasure and forget all her worries for once was quite… _compelling._ She caught herself grinning dreamily at her own thoughts.

This, in turn, only made Desire’s smirk grow wider.

_“I know you wanna try it. What stops you?”_

Eva averted her gaze shyly but nudged her head into Reason’s direction briefly. Her radiant clone smirked mischievously at that, forming a fist with her right hand to hit her free palm with it.

_“Leave her to me. She has kept me locked away for too long. It’s payback time.”_

The fiery clone casually approached the proper one who was still busy blushing at something.

_“Hey, Reason. Remember that one novel Eva read a while ago? The one where the heroine got captured and restrained?”_

_“Urgh, the kinky one. Yes, what of it?”_ Reason asked her with a whiny voice, not wanting to remember the contents of said book for having been way too smutty. Eva could kind of relate to her. Sometimes she would wish she could forget ever having read that one, either. Desire held out her hands in front of her and a pair of handcuffs materialized in them.

“ _Wanna try finding out what it’s like to be properly restrained?”_ She asked the proper clone with an exciting smirk on her lips. Said clone could do nothing but back away nervously.

_“Absolutely not! That sounds like such an unreasonable thing to do!”_

_“Oh? But I think it will be fun.”_

_“S-stay away from me, you m-monster!”_

Eva gulped as she slowly backed out of the office, not even sure if she wanted to know how exactly Desire intended to keep Reason busy. This weird delusion had gone on for long enough already as it was, so she wordlessly kicked open the door and stormed out of the imaginary room. As she expected, the fantasy ended right afterwards, sending her back exactly where she had been before. Cra be praised that this was finally over. Here’s to hoping her reasoning wouldn’t get in the way any longer.

She was currently in the middle of sharing an intimate kiss with her lovely knight with him slightly leaning over her. Deciding that she would go for a more active role for now, she gently pushed him back without breaking the kiss so that their roles were now reversed.

“Hey Dally?” She asked him once their lips parted again.

“Yes?”

“I couldn’t help but notice that _this_ …” She gently grazed the quite obviously erect part of him that was still hiding under his underwear with her knee while looking away shyly. “…situation doesn’t seem to improve at all.”

He laughed nervously at her pointing that out. “Well, I wouldn’t count on it changing anytime soon. Like I said, you have that kind of effect on me, so…”

She smiled at him. “I figured as much, but isn’t it uncomfortable that way?”

His expression changed into quite a conflicted one as he offered her a deep sigh. “It is. A lot. Honestly speaking, I had more room being stuck in Rubi’s prison than my junk has in those briefs…”

This made her giggle as she gently stroked his hair, leaning in closer to his ear as she whispered: “Aww, my poor knight. Well, seeing how I seem to be the main cause of your discomfort, perhaps I should do something to fix this?”

She had blushed while she had said that but drew some satisfaction out of the fact that he seemed way more flustered about her words than she was. Such a cute reaction.

“Y-you mean…?” His own question was interrupted by him gulping audibly.

“Uh-huh.” Since he had been saying all these cute things to her earlier, she felt she needed to properly thank him in kind. And what was a better way to do that but helping him out with his little _arousal_ problem that currently plagued him? Plus, it gave her a perfect excuse to throw a look on his dick which had piqued her curiosity ever since she had seen how big his bulge had become. It was finally time to put the books aside and gain some actual hands on experience for once.

“I…I’ll be in your care, then.” He told her as he scratched his cheek nervously.

She lied down next to him and put her right hand on his stomach, letting it gradually slide down towards his crotch and eventually slipping under his underwear. Now it was her turn to gulp as she approached the moment of truth. Her hand took hold of something warm and quite stiff. So this was it, she thought, as she gently freed her Iop’s penis from the painful restraints that were his underwear by pushing the fabric back. Dally immediately sighed in relief while Eva couldn’t help but gasp slightly at the sight.

What the hell? This thing was even bigger than her hand! This was supposed to fit inside a woman? Her? H-how? Last time she checked, her pussy wasn’t some kinda haven bag, you know? Now this couldn’t be right…

“Dally…?” She said his name troubledly. Noticing her worry, he grew sort of nervous as well.

“Y-yeah?”

“Is this thing always this big when you get excited?”

“Yes? I-is that a problem?” By Iop, please don’t let that be a problem.

She frowned, lost in thought. “I am not sure yet.”

 _“He is gonna break me_!” She cried internally. According to her knowledge, this thing was supposed to make her feel good, but she just wasn’t seeing how this could work. She forced herself to take deep breaths. Calm down, Eva. One thing at a time. First, let’s take care of this…what was it called in the books? Handjob?

“Please tell me if I am doing it wrong, alright?” She told him nervously to which he nodded. Then she took a firm grip on his shaft, careful to not use too much force.

“Your hand is soft.” He noted, sounding somewhat impressed. “As expected, it feels different when a girl does it.”

“I take it that’s a good thing?” She asked him amusedly as she began stroking his dick up and down gently, carefully watching how he would react. The wasn’t much of a difference she could notice outside of him taking a deep breath. He then seemed to relax more and more where he had previously been tense. She figured that was a good sign, so she continued, using the opportunity to experiment around with speed and the strength she used on her grip.

It wasn’t hard to figure out how much strength she needed to use since Dally’s face was the exact opposite of a pokerface. He would show her the exact second it became too much by frowning slightly. Once she noticed that, she pretty much immediately knew how hard she needed to grip his dick. Speed, on the other hand, appeared to be quite tricky. From the way he would occasionally suck in his breath once she picked up her up-and-down-movements, you would assume speeding up was the key to more pleasure, yet when she tried to confirm the theory by slowing down, it didn’t lead to bad reactions, either. So, if she got this right, the speed didn’t seem to matter all that much as long as she continued to pull his foreskin back in regular intervals. Well, sounded easy enough.

She noticed him burying his face in her neck, kissing it affectionately and causing her to giggle at the sensation. “Are you feeling good, Dally?”

“Yep. You are doing great.” He commended her, but eventually got distracted by her chest. Those two gorgeous mounds of flesh that he already _knew_ were softer than pudding and surely must have been even twice as tasty to kiss and lick, he would bet. He threw a bashful gaze her way. “Um, Eva?”

“Hm?”

“Could I, you know…” He pointed at her breasts and looked away embarrassedly.

“Oh.” She blushed once she realized what he meant. Well, she had been aware of men’s obsession with female bosoms, so this request hardly came as a surprise. It still was a bit embarrassing though.

But then she realized she was basically already playing with his dick so why was she even giving a fuck. She sat up for a second to unhook her bra, now merely fixing the loose garment to her body with her hands alone. She noticed her boyfriend’s big eyes shining is sweet anticipation about finally witnessing the grand premiere of his girlfriend’s boobs being unveiled to him and couldn’t help but giggle at his silliness.

“Are they really that fascinating?” She asked him in wonder to which he only nodded strongly, unable to even form words with how distracted he was. Shaking her head at his antics, she eventually let the curtains fall, leaving her beautiful bosom on full display. Her boyfriend gasped in awe like a kid seeing snow for the first time. His reaction was so adorable, she ended up getting flustered because of it. Lying down back next to him to resume her previous actions, she looked at him and smiled:

“Didn’t you want to touch them?”

Dally had to shake his head to get back to his senses but didn’t need any further invitations. Slowly and carefully, his hands travelled up to her breasts. There, he slowly allowed his hands to sink into them. His hands were warm and rough, Eva noted while focusing back on jerking her Iop off. Something had begun leaking out of the tip of the penis. She used a finger to check out it’s consistency only to realize that it was less sticky than she would have thought. If she had had to compare it to something she knew, she would say it was kind of like saliva? So pre-cum was like that, huh…

Dally was getting absorbed with her boobs in the meantime, cupping them in his hands curiously and softly pushing into them from different directions. They were soft and bouncy like jelly and honestly quite a blast to play around with. He grinned in satisfaction. This was great! Speaking of great…Eva’s movements on his dick started feeling pretty damn awesome, too.

He was playing around with her boobs so much that Eva eventually started noticing some weird sensations as well. Her breasts had started feeling heavier and more sensitive to his touch the longer he kept fondling them. It’s gotten to the point that even just feeling his breath graze over them could feel _really_ intense. Somehow focusing on his dick alone became harder with every passing second.

When Dally noticed her cute little nipples getting erect from excitement, he really couldn’t help but let a finger wander up to one of them to graze it. However, the moment he touched it, he noticed Eva flinching slightly.

“Something wrong?” He asked her.

“Ah, no. They are just very sensitive, so that surprised me a little.” She explained to him with a smile. It _had_ felt kinda nice…for some reason the experience seemed to be way stronger when done by someone else other than herself. Either way, her explanation had only gotten her boyfriend more interested.

“Sensitive, huh…? So what if I do this?” He started tracing circles around her areola with his fingers, occasionally grazing her nipples while he was at it. Eva closed her eyes and whimpered slightly. That felt really ticklish and…nice. That was why it was really unfortunate to see his teasing movements growing slower. Once she opened her eyes again to see why, she was quick to notice how his eyes were closed now as well with his breathing being heavier. At the same time, she saw how his hips kept moving occasionally, trying to “thrust” his dick into something that wasn’t there.

Ah, she saw how it was…he must have lost focus due to getting close, huh. Her actions must have been paying off then.

“…Eva…I…” He gasped but couldn’t quite form a full sentence, apparently. My, did he feel that good?

“Cumming?” She asked him with a sweet voice. Unable to even speak, he just nodded while uttering a soft whimper. This made her smile as she kissed him on the cheek and whispered: “Then cum for me, Dally.”

At the same time, she started jerking him off faster, figuring that it would likely feel better for him that way. When she saw him clutch the bedsheets in extasy, she just knew her intuition had been right.

“Ah, Eva…!” He moaned one last time before kicking his feet back in pleasure and a stream of semen kept gushing out in waves. Right as it had started coming out, he had hastily put his own hand over hers to make her stop moving, resulting in her merely continuing to pull his foreskin down as if imitating one last, deep thrust. If male orgasm was anywhere close to female ones, she figured his dick was probably too sensitive to handle any more of the regular movements she had performed up until now, which was why he had made sure to stop her at this point. She would make note of that for the future.

While her boyfriend was catching his breath momentarily, the blonde Cra couldn’t help but be amazed at the sheer amount of sperm he had produced in the blink of an eye. Quite a lot had landed on her own hand, making her play around with it a bit. It was thicker and stickier than pre-cum. Also warm. Didn’t seem to smell of anything of note, either, which she found slightly surprising. It was honestly not even half as gross as she thought it would be. She quickly used the bed’s blanket to wipe away any cum that had landed on her or Dally. She figured they would likely not use it much anyway, given how it was a fairly warm in her haven bag.

“Eva!” She suddenly felt Dally putting his arms around her as he snuggled close to her. “That. Was. Awesome.” He told her with a huge grin.

“Glad you liked it.” She told him with a proud smirk, followed by shrugging confidently. “What can I say? I am a quick learner.”

That was the moment he began leaning over her with a confident smirk of his own. “And I am a man of honor which means I ought to return the kindness that was bestowed upon me.” He took her hand into his and kissed its back gently.

“I think I have a favor to return to my lovely Cra.”

Eva blushed madly and averted her gaze with a shy smile. “Well, if you wanted to continue where you left off earlier, I wouldn’t oppose.” Her gaze found his again, looking up to him bashfully. “I was kind of getting into it, I think.”

“It would be my pleasure, milady.” He chuckled eagerly as he went in for a kiss while his hands went back to their earlier position, caressing her ripe chest fondly.

Truth to be told, he was really eager to make Eva feel the same way she had just managed to make him feel, but that might not be that simple. If he remembered Ruel’s advice correctly, he would do well to focus on her secondary weak spots for a while before moving on to the primary target. It sort of was really similar to dungeoneering…instead of heading straight for the boss room, you were first required to clear all the mid bosses first, which was fine with him, to be honest. He loved playing with Eva’s boobs! They were really soft and bouncy and…heck, it was like having a piece of heaven right in his hands to play around with. Seriously, they were the best!

Besides, every time his fingers would “accidentally” graze her nipples, his cute little Cra would reward him with the most adorable of reactions. Watch this:

He let his thumbs, that had been patiently circling her nipples up until now, brush over her nipples ever so slightly and Eva immediately hugged him a bit harder as she purred into him during their kiss. See? Granted, it had been rather short lived, but man, he swore he had never heard anything more beautiful in all his life. This must have been what angels sound like, really!

An interesting thought befell him. If she was already reacting so fondly to his fingers, how greatly would she react if he were to try something _else_? He smiled eagerly as he broke the kiss with his lovely girlfriend who could only watch him curiously as he now approached her chest, planting loving kisses all over her ample breasts. She smiled from how ticklish it felt but couldn’t say she disliked the feeling. Her fingers travelled through his fiery hair as she stroked his head. She liked how fluffy his mane felt in her hands.

His mouth had travelled closer to her nipples in the meantime, kissing its way over to her left areola and halting there momentarily. He threw a quick glance up to her and saw that she was watching him curiously, wondering what he was up to before he would smirk and quickly lick her.

“Ah!” She couldn’t help but yelp in surprise at the unfamiliar sensation of his wet, yet warm tongue tracing slow circles around her now quite sensitive nipple. To claim it hadn’t felt weird would have been a blatant lie, but Cra…! From the way he was starting to send quick sparks of electricity through her whole body, it would have been an even bigger lie to claim that she didn’t like it! With her eyes now closed and biting on her lower lip to avoid letting out weird noises, she embraced the experience wholeheartedly.

Dally took her cute reaction as an incentive to step up his game. Why only use your tongue when you could use you whole mouth? From one moment to the next, he put his lips around her nipple, sucking playfully on it and causing his girlfriend to gasp.

“Mngh-!” She subconsciously pulled her Iop closer to her chest, not even seeming to realize that her breathing had, by now, become quite audible to him. Nothing but music to his ears. Perhaps this was a sign that it was time for him to move on to the next step? Although he had had quite the fun playing with her other breast as well, he eventually removed his left hand from it in favor of slowly travelling down her body, albeit not without savoring the smoothness of her soft skin at the same time. Gradually he found his way over her navel and her hips, deciding to play around a bit with the fabric of her panties, remembering how these hips had taunted him not so long ago, swaying from left to right as they had. Now they finally were in his grasp and he couldn’t help feeling a sense of accomplishment from it. Moving on from there, he eventually travelled further down to her thighs where he found himself entranced by their softness.

Like with her breasts, she also had a bit of fat here that allowed your hands to grip something, but at the same time, it was a lot more tender due to her muscles below. He could immediately tell she had incredibly strong legs from just feeling those up and couldn’t help but smile in admiration. It was like his lovely Cra was the perfect blend between beauty and strength. Honestly, could she get any more perfect?

“You are such a tease, Dally…” Her soft words eventually brought him out of his trance. Looking up to her, he saw her pouting at him impatiently. Looks like someone couldn’t wait any longer. He had been right, after all. It had been time to move on.

“Ah, sorry. I guess I spaced out for a second there.” He apologized to her with a cute grin. “I keep learning more and more amazing things about my lovely Cra, so it can’t be helped.”

She couldn’t help but shake her head at him with a smile. “Iop brain.”

His eyes grew slightly wide when she brought her hands to her hips and began shedding away the last piece of clothing she still wore. Effortlessly she let it slip down her legs, only to fling it to her side carelessly afterwards. She then took his hand in hers and began guiding it towards her pussy while eying him with eyes glittering from anticipation.

“You will learn something even more amazing here, I bet.”

Using two fingers to carefully slide over her entrance, he was surprised to notice how dripping wet she had already become. He hadn’t even touched the insides yet but had already gathered a lot of her leaking love juices between his fingers. This made him chuckle at her in amusement.

“So I take it this means I am doing a good job?”

She looked away in shame. “Come on…d-don’t make me state the obvious.”

“I get it, I get it. Enough talking, am I right?” He said with a smirk as he approached her lips once more for an affectionate kiss to which she only responded by throwing her arms around his neck, moaning delightfully into him as his hand began massaging the entrance to her pussy gently. He took his time getting his fingers covered in her pleasant wetness before he decided it was time to explore the insides as well. Truth to be told, he hadn’t immediately known where to correctly push into, but eventually managed to gently find his way past her folds where his two fingers immediately felt as if they were being sucked into her, which he found to be amazing. As expected, her insides were even wetter and warmer than she had been on the outside and he could feel her constantly squeezing down on him, which was downright fascinating.

Meanwhile Eva had impatiently already awaited this moment ever since she had noticed his hand travelling down on her. Not long after he had started fondling her breasts, her lady parts had begun feeling awfully tingly and wet, filling her mind with the strange desire to be touched and _filled_. But now that the time had finally come for something to finally enter her at last, she had come to realize that nothing could have ever possibly prepared for this incredibly _stimulating_ sensation.

Granted, she had done this with her own fingers before but heck, this was not even close to the same. His were bigger, stronger and, most importantly, incontrollable by her. She had no idea how he would move inside her and, honestly, it was freaking exciting that way. With how incredibly sensitive she had become by now, she doubted this could be anything _but_ a blast.

Oblivious to all this, Dally merely noted how Eva broke the kiss and began burying her face in his neck, panting heavily. He blushed at how sexy he found these noises to be. He could hardly get enough of it and her hot breath hitting his skin. Encouraged by her reactions, he stopped playing around and instead focused on causing pleasure to his girlfriend to the best of his ability. He kept pushing his fingers in as much as he could, followed by pulling them out again and repeating the action.

“Dally…!” She gasped his name in pleasure, clinging closely to him as her breathing became even more shallow. He noticed how her hips had begun grinding against his finger seemingly by themselves now and the lewd, wet noise of his fingers repeatedly penetrating her was freaking hot, too. Seeing how she was now quite into it, he chose the final trick Ruel had told him about and used his other hand to play with her clit. Eva immediately threw her head back, unable to contain the pleasure. She had already felt her climax approaching…this effectively gave her the rest.

“C-cumming!” He heard her yelling followed by clamping him with all her might. Her whole body seemed to shake briefly and her vagina basically kept sucking his fingers in which made him all the more curious how awesome it must have been like with his dick being in there instead of his fingers. Gulping down the excessive saliva that started gathering in his mouth at that imagination, he quickly shook his head to rid himself of it, choosing to check up on his beloved Cra instead.

Said woman eventually let go of him and seemed to struggle hard with just catching her breath again. Man, that orgasm sure must have been intense to wear her out like that, huh? He smirked at himself. There was nothing better than receiving your reward over a job well done. This sight right here? His lovely girlfriend smiling absent mindedly and out of breath from the sheer amount of pleasure she had just received from him? The best reward he had ever received, hands down.

“Ah….amazing.” Was all she managed to mutter in between small giggles and heavy breathing. Her brain refused to aid her with forming any other words right now, as it was completely preoccupied with showing her static like some broken Xelor device. She tried looking for Dally but couldn’t quite make out anything from her blurry vision and several white spots hindering her sight no matter how much she tried blinking them away. Whenever she wanted to move her limbs, she was reminded that those were still all prickly and weak as wax. No matter how you looked at it, she was pretty much out of commission for the time being. She grinned happily.

How…wonderful. Best kind of relief she had ever experienced up until now. And people honestly tried to tell her she was better off holding off on these things?

Were they mad!? Wasn’t this, like, absolutely the best? For a brief moment, there had been nothing but her and Dally…no worries, no problems, no dangers. Just her, him and this incredible and overwhelming wave of _pleasure_.

She sighed contently, thinking she could very well get used to this.

“You seem content with life.” She saw Dally’s face entering her field of vision with a big grin, causing her to smile happily at him as well, raising her arms to take a hold of him.

“C’mere, you big lovable fool, you.” She mumbled with a chuckle, taking hold of his arm and snuggling close to it like a content cat. Letting out a happy sigh, she added: “I am keeping you forever, just so you know.”

He let out a big sigh of relief at that. “That’s good, ‘cause I think falling in love with someone else would be pretty much impossible for me at this point, you know?” He would be in big trouble emotionally if she suddenly decided she didn’t want him around anymore. She blushed slightly at that.

“You won’t ever need to fall in love with anyone else, so don’t worry. I don’t think I could ever stop loving you even if I tried.”

He gently kissed the top of her head and smiled. “I am one lucky Iop, then. To call you my Cra.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. “Iop brain. The lucky one is me…”

He laughed quietly and scratched the back of his head. There was a pleasant silence between them for a short while before he couldn’t help but notice awkwardly:

“It’s a shame we are kinda back where we started, though.”

She blinked at him in confusion, looking up to him. “What do you mean?”

He scratched his cheek with a meek smile and pointed at something below them. Looking into the direction his finger was pointing in, she eventually spotted the problem and flinched in surprise. There, between his legs, his huge cock was, yet again, standing at attention, ready for duty.

“What, again?” She asked him in disbelief. Wasn’t there supposed to be a refractory period, or something?

“Excuse me, but do you have _any_ idea how absolutely mindboggling _hot_ you just were?” He told her with a huge grin. “Remember how Grugal-whatever blasted me with fire? That was ice cold by comparison. Arctic. Brrr.” He feigned being cold.

She would have laughed at his silly joke if it weren’t for the fact that they were exactly at the same point they had already started earlier. Narrowing her eyes in resignation, she could do little but sigh deeply. “This is getting us nowhere.”

She eyed his cock with a serious expression, thinking absent-mindedly to herself as she gently traced it with a finger, making it twitch cutely. Frankly speaking, she was still not entirely convinced that his dick could possibly fit inside her, but hot damn, just remembering how amazingly good even just Dally’s fingers had made her feel just now, she couldn’t help but wonder just how much _this_ thing could blow her mind. She caught herself licking her lips in silent anticipation. She really wanted to find out.

Somewhere deep in her mind, the blaring noise of an alarm siren tried catching her attention as the familiar voice of Reason tried yelling: _“Absolutely not!”_

However, it was quickly shut down again by Desire “accidentally” pulling the siren’s plug with her feet while sporting a cheeky grin. There were no breaks on the fun train. Choo-choo!

“Hey, Dally.” She thus addressed her boyfriend with a playful smile. “Since getting each other off individually proved to be such a bust, wanna try feeling good together next?”

“You mean…?” He gulped heavily as he pointed at his dick first, followed by her pussy, to which she only nodded slowly, albeit not without blushing ever so slightly.

“Let’s pour our love out for each other to see, what do you say?” She asked him somewhat bashfully. Gosh, if you said it like that, it sounded a bit embarrassing, but also cute.

Dally couldn’t believe his ears. Having sex was something only couples who really, really, really loved each other got to experience. Having Eva being comfortable with doing it with him was, like, the greatest proof of trust and affection she could have possibly offered him. Really, he was so moved, he could have started crying tears of joy right now. This woman. This Cra of his. He would cherish her for life. That, he swore on the name of Iop. He looked down on her seriously.

“Eva, I love you and to become one with you would make me the happiest Iop in the world of twelve.”

She blushed madly at his words, eyes shining at his cuteness. “And me the happiest Cra. Shall we, my beloved knight?”

“With pleasure.” He leaned over her, taking hold of his dick and gently rubbing it against her still wet pussy to get it lubricated properly. Eva couldn’t quite suppress a giggle at the weird sensation.

“That should be enough, I think.” She decided after a short while, putting her hands around him. “Now come, but please be gentle, alright?”

“You are shaking.” He noticed worriedly. “Are you afraid?”

“A bit excited.” She explained quickly and with a reassuring smile, followed by looking away with a bit of shame. “I am not quite sure what to expect.”

He frowned and took a quick glance at his own hands. A scary thought befell him. She had good reason to be nervous…these hands that currently held her so tenderly…they were normally only ever used to inflict pain. To destroy. His expression grew somewhat sad.

“Many things I touch end up breaking…I don’t want to hurt you…” He ended up admitting with a soft voice.

Her eyes grew wide from those words and she quickly put a hand on his cheek, stroking it gently.

“Hey, if there is one thing I know, then that you won’t ever hurt me. Remember how Rubi couldn’t even touch me when he possessed your body? What makes you think it would be different now that you have it back?”

“I hurt you before…when I broke your bow.” He looked down in shame, causing her to forcibly lift his face up again to make him look at her now slightly angry face.

“Forget the stupid bow.” She hissed. “It doesn’t matter. _You_ matter. I trust you with all my heart, so trust yourself as well, okay?” She ended up smiling again once she saw determination return into his beautiful eyes.

Eva believed in him? Then that was good enough. He could overcome all hardships as long as he knew he had her support. There was no challenge he would shy away from, no foe he couldn’t fell. With her on his side, he was indominable, unbreakable.

And if he, her shield, was unbreakable, so would she become invulnerable as well. There was nothing to worry about. He smirked and nodded at her with newfound confidence.

“I understand, Eva. Leave it to me.”

“That’s the Iop I love.” She told him contently and rubbed her nose against his playfully. But then she remembered something and couldn’t help but offer him a troubled look, sporting a crooked smile. “Ah, there is one thing…”

“What is it?” He asked her with a raised brow.

“You will likely end up hurting me a bit, after all.”

“I…I will?” He eyed her worriedly. It was clear as day that he didn’t want to, though.

“Probably, but that’s unavoidable the first time, so don’t worry. Just go slowly and let me adjust, okay?”

“Got it. I will be careful. Promise.” He told her with a nervous smile, giving her a small peck on the lips.

“Thank you.”

Returning to their starting positions, Dally took his dick into his hand to help it with sliding into Eva’s vagina while said Cra was trying to relax as she spread her legs for him readily. Once his dick pressed against her entrance, the redhaired knight gulped one last time and threw a glance at his girlfriend who only offered him a reassuring smile and signaled for him to proceed with a nod. He took a deep breath before starting to apply a bit of pressure, making his penis push past her folds and into the promised land.

Eva closed her eyes uncomfortably at the sensation of him slowly spreading her apart but was thankful for him not slowing down and hesitating due to her discomfort. There was no easy way around this and the sooner she got though this, the better. She appreciated him trying to be careful, though. It kept the pain to a minimum.

“Are you alright, Eva?” He asked her worriedly.

“I am fine. How much is already in?” He looked down and eyed her worriedly afterwards.

“Just the tip…”

Just the-…? She cried internally. She had hoped this would be easier.

Seeing her visibly troubled by this, he tried being a gentleman and asked: “Should we take a break, perhaps?”

“No!” She decided determinedly. She was not a quitter. She was a Cra! She could do this! “Keep going.”

“Okay.” He approved of her determination. That was the spirit!

She brought down a finger to her lips to bite down on its nail but eventually ended up biting the whole finger instead to prevent her from screaming out as more and more of his Iopish greatness entered her.  When Dally finally announced to her that he was all in, she could have sworn to Cra that there couldn’t have possibly been any other words that could have made her happier in that moment than these very ones he had just used. She let out a deep sigh of relief.

“E-eva, you are crying…” He couldn’t help but notice guiltily, causing her to bring a hand to her eyes to notice that he had been right. Tears really had formed there.

“I-I’m fine.” She tried to tell him but noticed her voice cracking. Crap, she really was crying. Why though? It didn’t hurt _that_ much…

Okay, who was she kidding, it had hurt quite a lot.

He tried kissing away her tears. “I am sorry, Eva. I tried being careful but…”

“It’s fine.” She told him with a slightly weepy voice, embraced him and pulled him closer to her. “Just stay with me like this for a while…” She asked of him. He did just that, holding her close in her arms, continuing to kiss away her tears as well as stroking her head soothingly so she could relax. His sweet actions filled her with a warm feeling akin to a mixture of gratitude and appreciation. She leaned into him and smiled contently until several minutes had passed.

“Thank you. I feel better now.” She told him, sounding fine again. “You were very gentle and knightly. As expected of my lovely Sir Percedal.”

He grinned proudly at her. “My princess deserves no less.”

“Oh, you…” She giggled and ruffled his hair. “So, what do you say? Shall we start having some fun?”

Her question was met with an eager nod. “I will make up for the pain I have caused you.”

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just enjoy ourselves, okay?”

“I am kinda already enjoying myself here…” He admitted with a guilty grin. “Your insides feel better than heaven, Eva. And I should know, I’ve been there.” It was warm, and wet and Iop be damned, she was so freaking _tight_. His whole dick was enveloped in pure, wet warmth. This…this was the best. It really was!

She smirked at him. “If you feel good just from this, try moving next. It might get even _better_.”

“You sure it’s okay?”

She nodded. “Mh-hm. Just take it slow for now.”

That was all the confirmation he needed. Without further ado, he began pulling out slowly, only to push back in again. Eva closed her eyes, taking in the feeling of her Iop grinding against her deepest parts. It was an entirely different feeling from when he had used his fingers. That had been great before, but this…? He filled her up so nicely that he naturally ended up reaching all the spots his fingers previously couldn’t. This certainly was quite the new… _experience_.

His hands found their way back to her boobs, fondling them eagerly like he had before. She watched him with a smile as he began sucking on her tits again, the right one this time, for variance, she presumed.

“You really like playing with my boobs, hm?”

He offered her a grin as he buried his face in them happily. “Yup. I love them. They are perfect.”

She giggled at his honesty. “Well, I kinda like it when you do that, so I guess I will let you do it more often from now on. But only when we are alone, got it?”

He offered her a cheeky grin. “Now I don’t wanna return to the others again for some reason.”

She returned his grin while narrowing her eyes at him playfully. “Perv. What would Yugo say if he ever found out his best friend ditched him in favor of playing with my boobs instead?”

He shrugged at that with a knowing smirk. “You don’t get it, Eva. He’s a man. He would understand.”

“Right, right.” She giggled in mild amusement when she saw him shifting his attention back towards her chest, unable to hold himself back any longer. She very much welcomed the sentiment…and the sensation.

As this went on for a bit, she noticed him gradually picking up speed regarding his thrusting and couldn’t help holding back a cute moan that had tried escaping her lips. Oh, this was kinda starting to feel nice, huh. She begun craving the lips of her knight, which was why she kindly addressed him:

“Dally, kiss me.”

He smiled at her cute demand and leaned in on her. “As my princess wishes.”

His lips met hers which she begun kissing hungrily while cupping his face with her hands. Her tongue found her way into his mouth, desperately seeking company and so his own one joined her in a dance of love and passion, accompanied by the sweet song of her muffled moans. It turned him on so much, he couldn’t help picking up speed once more, now thrusting hard enough to make Eva actually feel the slight knockback. She now had to actively try to not get pushed back by his forceful thrusts.

And boy did she love it. The strength in his every thrust, the feeling of his cock reaching all the way down to her deepest parts. The gushing noise her pussy-juices made whenever he rammed his rod inside her, the smell it filled the room with. She freaking loved all of it. It was hot. It was sexy. And by Cra, she wanted even _more_ of it.

She broke the kiss due to lack of air, gasping to catch some desperately needed oxygen so her lungs would stop whining and allow her to go back to kissing those gorgeous lips of her boyfriend. However, it was visibly harder now to catch her breath, now that her heart was beating in her chest in such a fast rhythm, her breathing could hardly keep up with filling her lungs with the much-needed oxygen accordingly. And thus she made do with pulling him close to her, so that his forehead would rest against hers and she could sink into his love-filled eyes instead.

“Love me, Dally.” She asked of him in between her heavy panting. “Love me until I can’t think anymore.”

“Eva!” After hearing her say such adorable things in such a sexy voice, something inside him snapped. He no longer could think straight and hungrily assaulted her neck, kissing her vigorously while massaging her breasts with both his hands.

“Yes, Dally.” She moaned sweetly into his ear, the feeling of her hot breath nearly driving him mad. “Like that. Don’t hold back. Give me all you’ve got. Make me lose my mind.”

After a while, she noticed him eventually letting go of his chest in favor of taking a firm grip on her hips, obviously needing to hold her in place so she wouldn’t get pushed back by his forceful shoves. She felt the bed shake under them with his every move and cried out in excitement every time the tip of his dick kissed the entrance to her womb. And with every additional kiss, another distant part of her mind seemed to slip away, getting overridden by passion instead.

“E-Eva, I am-“ She heard him grunt in pleasure and could easily tell he had already tried his hardest to prolong the inevitable and was now at his limit.

“It’s okay. Give it to me, Dally! All of it!” She thus told him, feeling so greedy for his love, she could hardly wait to know how it would feel like to have it pour inside her in its entirety. It might help with the insatiable and ever growing void inside her that kept aching, begging her to be _filled_. More, give her more!

Having gotten her okay, he had no further need to hold back any longer. As he approached his climax, he began thrusting into her so rapidly, Eva could have sworn her mind had blanked out for a second there which must have been the reason why she only seemed to have registered the feeling of Dally’s cum being inside her once some of it had already started leaking out of her again, dripping onto the bedsheets.

Wait, something was wrong. Why was half of the mattress not lying horizontally anymore? The frontal part was now touching the ground for some reason.

“Mhn?” This had been meant to be a question regarding the mattress but ended up being nothing but a cute sound as her disoriented mind started rearranging itself back into order and thus was in no position to form questions.

“Sorry, Eva. I think I…broke your bed.” Dally told her, sounding out of breath as he confusedly looked at the broken remains of what used to be the bed’s wooden frame.

Trying to catch her own breath as well, she merely sat up and looked at the damage. Yup, the part meant to hold the mattress in place had broken cleanly through, unable to shoulder the strength of her mighty lover. As a result, the mattress was now partially grounded. Seeing this, she eyed Dally in disbelief, mouth slightly gaping apart.

“Please don’t be mad, Eva…” He said nervously, fearing to have inflicted her wrath by breaking her stuff. She, however, eyed him with pure adoration, still breathing heavily.

“…I love you.”

“H-huh?” Not having expected this reaction, he couldn’t help to look at her with quite some bewilderment. So she wasn’t mad? Using his confusion, Eva quickly took his face into her hands and pulled it closer to her, planting a loving kiss straight on his lips. He melted into her hands the very next second. When she eventually let go of him again, she offered him the sweetest smile he had ever seen.

“You didn’t hold back, just like I have asked of you.” She snuggled up to his chest happily. “Thank you.”

He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “You know, I couldn’t hold back my love for you even if I wanted to, so…”

“That’s good.” She decided with a cheerful grin. “If you promise to keep it that way, I will promise to love you with all I’ve got as well. What do you say?”

“Eva, I would even give you my life if only it meant I could continue receiving your love. If it’s my love you want, you shall have all of it until the end of time. I will gladly give you every bit of it, all day, every day.”

She put her arms around his neck and looked him deeply into his eyes after giving him a quick peck on the lips. “Then I shall be yours as well. Body, heart and soul. Everything. Forever.” They enjoyed the moment for a while before Eva couldn’t help but giggle, remembering something silly.

“You know…there is this Cra custom where I should have put my bow into your hands to symbolize that I am surrendering myself to you, but…” She scratched her cheek and laughed. “I think we are way beyond that, aren’t we?”

One of her hands travelled down to her crotch where Dally’s sperm was still dripping out of her. The sight kind of made her smile. There was so much…

Dally assisted her with wiping it off, grinning. “I think you gave me something way better instead.”

“I feel like that should be my line somehow.” She said with a chuckle. “Look, it just won’t stop pouring out.”

He looked away slyly. “I would rather not look too much, lest I get excited again.”

“A-again…?” A crooked smile formed itself on her lips which gradually transformed into a dreamy one the more she envisioned them returning to their…earlier activities. Oh no, she might really end up _breaking_ if that were to happen…

But then she shook her head hastily to dismiss these delusions, realizing that sex was freaking exhausting and she no longer had the energy left to even keep her eyes open for much longer, let alone another round of lovemaking.

As much fun as it had been…

“The original plan was for us to go sleeping, though.” Eva eventually reminded them both while rubbing her eyes tiredly, suppressing a yawn.

“Not with that broken bed, we won’t.” He laughed guiltily as he got up, lifting her up while he was at it to place her on her feet. She watched him as he effortlessly grabbed the mattress and put it on the floor so that it would at least lie horizontally again. “There, now we can at least lie on this thing properly again.”

Eve quickly grabbed the pillow that had fallen to the floor and put it on the mattress, then threw herself on it next, gently patting the spot next to her once she had settled down comfortably on it. “I hope you won’t shy away from cuddling anymore now that you won’t have to hide your boner from me anymore.” She told him with a playful grin. He laughed at that and gave her a humble bow before climbing onto the mattress after her.

“Nope. I am all yours, milady.”

She felt his two strong arms wrapping themselves around her and pulling her close. Her head ended up resting on his chest, where she couldn’t help tracing invisible shapes onto it with her right index finger. She felt like his embrace could possibly be the warmest and safest place she could possibly ever be in, which caused her to utter a big sigh of relief. At last, she closed her eyes, choosing to send her conscience off into the land of dreams. She had no doubts she would sleep well tonight.

Dally watched her relax in his arms with a smile and couldn’t help but smile at that as well. He realized that, when it came down to it, this was really all he needed. Someone who he could love unconditionally while she did the same for him in return. As long as he had that, he wouldn’t care about kamas, wouldn’t even mind if it turned out that he could never return to the legend again, now that he had already fled it once. Ultimately, these things were unimportant to him now. They didn’t matter. What really mattered rested in his arms currently, safe and sound. Knowing this, he could allow himself to find peace as well. His eyelids grew heavy, as did his head. He allowed himself to put it to rest next to hers, letting the sweet fragrance of her flowery hair and the soft noise of Eva’s delicate breathing lull him into a pleasant slumber next to her.

…

And as Eva snoozed away peacefully, somewhere in the far back reaches of her mind two imaginary clones talked to each other:

 _“Told ya it would be worth it, Reason.”_ Desire told her colleague with a playful chuckle. She stood in the same office as before, albeit it now looked less neat with various documents now scattered across the floor and some file cabinets having been knocked over. _“Woah, Dally sure managed to leave our girl’s mind in disarray. Such a good boy, wouldn’t you agree?”_

 _“Ehehehe….”_ Reason could do little but push her glasses back up, grinning absent-mindedly for a second before shaking her head and returning to her work, which currently consisted of stamping a huge stack of documents in quick succession. Each of them sported a big “APPROVED” on it once she was done with them.

_“Normally I would consider damage of this kind to be **very** dangerous but given the circumstances…I would say the benefits far outweigh the risks, so I will overlook it.”_

She eyed Reason with a cheeky grin before adding: “ _You better clean this mess up overnight so our dear Eva properly functions again tomorrow.”_

She sighed in defeat and nodded. _“I’ve got no choice, I suppose. It’s my job after all.”_

_“You’ve got that right. By the way, what are you doing right now?”_

This time it was Reason’s turn to smirk smugly. _“I am approving all further sexual actions Eva might want to partake in in the future. I’ll support every single one from now on.”_

Desire’s grin grew wider as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. _“Ooh? Look who’s developed a liking to it all of a sudden.”_

Reason shrugged at her colleague’s teasing, still smirking cockily. _“I’ll gladly admit that I was wrong this time, but that’s only because no one of you told me about this hormonal cocktail Eva’s brain would release during this whole ordeal. If I had known from the start, do you think I would have opposed?”_ She sighed deeply, looking utterly relaxed. _“Girl, ever since all this stuff has kicked in, I’ve been higher than Mount Zenit. This feels like I am on a freaking vacation right now. Do you know the last time I had a vacation, Desire?”_ The proper Cra asked the fiery one, pushing back her glasses with a smug smirk. Desire could do little but shrug cluelessly.

_“Uh…beats me.”_

That’s when Reason grabbed her by the collar energetically and yelled: _“NEVER! Eva NEVER takes a break from thinking! Until now. That’s why…”_ The proper Cra chuckled mischievously as she grabbed every last document on her desk she had just approved and handed it over to Desire as she pointed at the two of them with a confident smirk. _“…you and I will see to it that_ _today’s events will repeat as often as humanely possible from now on, alright?”_

The wilder Cra of them took the documents into her possession with shiny eyes, undoubtedly already imagining all the lewd things she would cause Eva to do from now on. Giving Reason a dutiful salute, she responded with: _“Leave it to me, Ma’am. I’ve been born for this job, after all.”_

She had barely even finished saying that before she had turned around and left the office eagerly. Better store these valuable lewd licenses somewhere where they were safe and out of reach of Reason before her drugged state would wear off and she could possibly even consider revoking them all again. Although Desire doubted Reason would actually do that, it was still better to be safe than sorry. Ah, Eva and her will have _quite_ a field trip with these from now on, no doubt.

Reason looked into the direction her new partner in crime had run off to and frowned bitterly, mumbling: _“She could have at least helped me with cleaning this place up again…”_

Then she sighed, deciding to get started by picking the first document up of the floor. This was gonna be a loooong night…

\---+---

A new morning dawned.

Well, it wasn’t easy to tell that from inside Eva’s haven bag, but the blonde Cra had always been an early bird so she figured she could just somehow _sense_ it. Her biological clock had never failed her in all her life.

She tiredly rubbed her eyes and noticed how warm her pillow was and how it would gently rise up and down. Confused about that, she finally opened her eyes only to see she was resting on Dally’s chest. A quick rush of confusion overcame her as she flinched in surprise at the unfamiliar wake-up scenery but quickly relaxed again once her memories about last night eventually returned to her.

Oh, right. That happened. More memories came flooding her mind.

She buried her face in her hands in utter shame. She could not believe she had gone that far. What had he done to her to completely turn off her rationality in favor of letting her hormones take charge? She eyed him from between the slits of her fingers, frowning slightly in defeat.

Oh well, it’s not like she hadn’t ended up liking it…so whatever had happened to her….maybe it wasn’t a bad thing? It was just slightly worrying how quickly this guy could dismantle her sanity, turning her into a love-crazed lunatic. Dangerous. Very dangerous.

She ended up smirking at her sleeping Iop, gently letting her hand travel through his fiery mane.

The only kind of danger she would willingly put herself into without hesitation. She slowly leaned into him, whispering sweetly into his ear.

“Dally. Da~lly. Rise and shine. It’s time to get up.”

She had to suppress a chuckle once she noticed how quickly the corners of his lips rose up into a happy smile upon hearing her sweet voice, only to turn into a less-than impressed scowl once he heard it was time to get up.

“Only five more minutes…” He mumbled tiredly and cuddled closer to her, making her smile at him.

“Come on. If we don’t get up early and find the others, everyone will be worried about us.”

“Nobody aside from you wakes up this early. They will need at least a full hour to get Ruel up, let alone prepare breakfast.” Dally argued listlessly as he gently rested his head on her chest, sighing dreamily. “I could sleep like this forever, honestly.”

She grinned mischievously as she nibbled on his ear playfully, making him tense up immediately at the unfamiliar sensation. With a faint blush, he informed her: “E-eva, that really tickles.”

“Ahaaa, I’ve found a weak spot!” She grinned in victory which caused him to return the look mischievously.

“Oh, are we exploiting weak spots now? Then how’s this?” He quickly brought his face down to her stomach and began blowing raspberries against her skin, causing her to laugh out loud while trying to push him away.

“No! Stop! That’s too much!” She quickly tried to flee but got held back by her wrist and pulled back into his arms.

“Not letting you run away.” He told her with a playful grin before planting a quick kiss on her lips, which she lovingly returned. However, she brought the fun to a quick end by mildly biting him on the lip, causing him to flinch and pull back.

“That’s enough. If we don’t get ready soon, we won’t find our way back in time. Come on.” She told him with a smirk and got up.

“You are evil, Eva. Evil!” He whined but eventually followed suit. They gathered their underwear that had been discarded the night prior and got dressed again. When he spotted Eva looking at her broken bed with her right hand on her chin and her other one placed on her hip, Dally couldn’t help but massage the back of his neck troubledly.

“Oh yeah. Sorry I broke your bed, Eva.”

She blinked at him briefly as if not really having listened, then only laughed as she waved his concern off. “Oh? No, don’t worry about it. I would have had to replace it soon anyway.  It was too small for two, after all.” She pulled him closer and hooked her arm into his with a seductive smirk. “Since I assume you will become a regular visitor in my haven bag from now on, am I right?”

His eyes lit up from happiness. “You mean…?”

“Well, unless you don’t want to-“ She mumbled nervously as she looked away and played with her hair.

“Oh, I want!” He hastily interrupted her, albeit perhaps a bit too eagerly, causing her to blink at him a bit from surprise, but then smiling warmly at him. He blushed slightly and cleared his throat. “But, you know…”

She saw him putting his index fingers together embarrassedly, eying her from the corner of his eyes.

“But…?” She asked him cutely, tilting her head to the side ever so slightly.

“What we did last night…it was so wonderful, I don’t think I could hold back near you any more from now on.”

This made her smirk at him knowingly as she pulled closer to him, whispering into his ear: “What makes you assume I would want you to?”

“B-but!” He tried to remain serious, although it was clear as day to her how flustered her actions made him. “…isn’t that how…you know…” He leaned in closer, whispering: “…babies are made?”

This caused her to smile at him sheepishly as she massaged the back of her neck. “Well, true. But you don’t have to worry that much about it. Cra’s aren’t known to be very fertile, after all.”

She saw him folding his arms in front of his chest with a confused frown. “…What do you mean, ‘Cra’s aren’t _for a while_?”

She sighed at him, trying to rephrase her sentence so he would understand. “Fertile. It means that for Cra’s it’s like suuuuper hard to make babies. I heard some even struggle for years, do you understand?”

He hit his palm with his fist in epiphany and smirked eagerly. “Oooooh, so it’s a challenge?”

She tensed up nervously and quickly tried to calm him down by making soothing gestures with both her hands before he could get the wrong idea here. “Easy there, Dally. The objective here is _not_ to get me pregnant, remember? We still want to go on adventures, right?”

He put his hand on his chin and nodded with closed eyes. “Oh, right, right. I see.”

Eva sighed in relief while he only looked at her with a confident grin, pointing proudly at himself. “But just so you know, I totally could win that challenge.”

She laughed at his antics and decided to humor him: “Riiiight, so let me guess: You would likely want an Iop boy. Tough luck, for I’ve just now decided that I will only have Cra girls.” She had wanted to tease him a bit, only to get surprised by him merely shrugging indifferently.

“Eh, that’s fine. Cra or Iop doesn’t matter as long as they come from you. I think you would make a good mother, Eva.” He told her the last bit with a happy grin as he scratched the back of his head.

This caused her to blush madly as she eyed him in utter bewilderment. Eventually, she could do little but narrow her eyes in defeat. Honestly, why was this guy so goddamn adorable? “Sheesh…what’s with you, saying such things all of a sudden…”

“But you know…” He brought up a hand to his chin and began thinking about the future. “I would still like to have at least one Iop to train. Just imagine how much fun it would be. He or she would become the greatest Iop of them all.” He laughed grandly. “A legend worthy of their parents name.”

She smiled at him as she shook her head slowly. “The kid doesn’t even exist yet and you are already the proudest dad there could ever be…”

“Well, of course.” He nodded confidently and with folded arms. “It would be our kid. We are already awesome, so naturally, our kid would be even more awesome. It’s very logical, Eva.”

“Oh you…” She sighed at him helplessly as she patted his head gently, giggling amusedly. “Never change, Dally.”

“It’s decided then.” He declared confidently, causing her to blink at him.

“What is?”

“Twins.” He told her, smirking proudly. “We will be having twins. One Iop boy and one Cra girl.”

“Wha-?” She eyed him in utter bewilderment before she eventually started to laugh. “That’s impossible. In the whole Cra history, there were, like, what? Only a handful of cases where twins were born? You would have to be a god to get a Cra to bear twins.”

He only shrugged at that, followed by forming and raising a fist eagerly. “Nothing is impossible for Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove! I came back from the dead. How hard could it be to make twins?”

She grinned at him amusedly as she folded her hands together behind her back cutely. “Very. Statistically, you would be more likely to win the lottery. But…” She narrowed her eyes on him lovingly as she leaned in closer. “…since it’s you, if you try very, very, _very_ hard…you might actually succeed.”

He gulped at the implication and couldn’t help but grin excitedly just from imagining how much fun they would have together from now on, but then he quickly shook his head and rose a finger alarmingly. “Ah, you gotta stop motivating me too much, Eva. I almost forgot the objective.”

This made her blush and pull back nervously as well, nodding with closed eyes. “Oh, right, right. No kids for now, so remember: Leave your twin idea for _after_ the adventures, alright?” She gestured with her hands to take his idea and put it to the side for later. He nodded heavily and gave her two thumbs up to visualize that he had understood. She nodded contently. Good. Nothing bad should happen as long as he didn’t put his mind to it, right? Her knight may have liked to achieve the impossible, but this time she would appreciate it if he achieved the impossible…later. Much later.

“Well, come on. We ought to get going.” She eventually decided to finish the topic and get back to more pressing affairs…like getting back to their friends.

“Right behind you.”

Shortly after, Rubilax was greeted with the sight of Eva’s bag growing momentarily bigger than it should be, only to spit out two very familiar looking people before shrinking back to its normal size again. Looking up, the two youths quickly realized that the sky had, indeed, already begun to get brighter, but it was still very early in the morning. Still, since Eva didn’t object in any way, Dally figured that the little bit of light they had must have been enough for her to find their way back to their camp. Sometimes he envied her eyesight a bit.

“Up so early, lovebirds?” Rubi greeted them with a bored expression, still being stuck in the ground near a now burnt out campfire.

“Morning, Rubi. Yep, Eva is ruthless as always.” Dally moaned tiredly and rubbed his eyes with a yawn.

“Heh, that’s what you signed up for, so better stop complaining.” Rubi told him with a chuckle. Eva nodded at that agreeingly.

“Listen to your sword.” She said as she pointed at Rubi with a smirk.

“Yeah, yeah.” Dally yawned again and pulled Rubi out of the ground. “So, finished thinking?”

The Shushu blade eyed him in annoyance. “I would have liked to do some thinking, if it hadn’t been so damn _loud_.” He threw a glance at Eva and said: “Hate to break it to you, blondie, but whoever gave you that bag of yours gave you a busted one. This one doesn’t muffle the sound coming from inside _at all_.”

This made her eye the blade in utter horror. Pushing Dally aside in a panic, she grabbed the blade with both hands and hastily said: “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Are you trying to tell me you could _hear_ us?”

He eyed her smugly. “As if you were right next to me.”

Despair and shame took hold of her face as she lowered her gaze so that her hair would obstruct her eyes. “…W-what did you hear?” She asked with a soft voice.

He narrowed his eye on her. “Everything.”

“Everything…?”

“ _Everything._ ”

“I see.” Eva was seen holding the blade with shaky hands as a scary smile crept up her face. Not liking the terrifying look in her eyes, Rubilax grew nervous when he saw her turning around to face the lake, followed by reaching back as if attempting to throw him into it.

“Oi, oi, oi! Girl, what are you doing!?” Rubi suddenly yelled in a panic while Dally quickly grabbed Eva’s hand to prevent her from sinking Rubi to the bottom of that lake.

“Easy there, Eva! Friends don’t throw friends away.” He tried to convince her worriedly. Rubi couldn’t help but agree wholeheartedly.

“Listen to your boyfriend, missy!”

Eva still smiled scarily, stubbornly trying to break free from her knight’s grip to proceed with her evil deed. “He has seen too much, Dally. He must _disappear_.”

“Oh, you have no idea how _relieved_ I am I didn’t actually get to see. Just hearing was more than enough, really.” Rubi couldn’t help but comment with a roll of his eye.

“You wanted to think, no? Should be plenty quiet when you are submerged under water.” She hissed at him.

“Are you speaking from experience there, drowning beauty?” Rubi shot back equally as angry.

“And just whose damn fault was that, huh?” Breaking free from Dally’s grip, she ran up to the nearest tree to repeatedly smack Rubi against it.

“Ouch. Ow. What, did being a bodyguard not pay enough? Ouch. You a lumberjack now?”

“Dally, how. Do. You. Shut. This. Thing. UP?” The blonde Cra yelled in a fury, hitting the blade against the tree after every word she said.

Said knight merely eyed the show in mild amazement, thinking he had seen this somewhere before. “Wow…Déjà vu.”

“Urgh….how humiliating…” Eva eventually gave up, falling to her knees and leaning on her hands, followed by angrily clenching her fists and gritting her teeth. “Should have known Ruel wouldn’t give a good haven bag away just like that. Just wait until I get this old cheapskate into my clutches…”

“Ah, you want to beat someone up? Let me be of service.” Rubi suddenly sounded eager, chuckling evilly. “And don’t fret so much about me knowing what you did last night. I’ve seen Goutard do worse. Nothing fazes me anymore, really.” He added the last bit as if he was a shell-shocked veteran.

“Whatever…” Eva sighed in defeat, choosing to get up and handing the blade back to Dally with a sullen expression. “Guess I will just have to live with Rubi always being there. I suppose it’s a bit like having a pet watch you…”

“Oi, who are you calling a pet!” Rubi yelled, but eventually got shushed by Dally.

“Let it rest, Rubi. If you make her angry again, she really might end up throwing you into that lake.”

Rubi growled in anger but chose to heed his guardian’s warning and kept his mouth shut, looking away in a displeased manner. Dally and Eva then walked up to the string that still held their clothes and sighed in relief when they saw that they really had dried up next to the fire. Well, you could still feel a few damp spots on some places, but it would do for now. It already was way better than it had been the night before. They quickly got dressed and got ready to move out, letting Eva navigate through the woods while Dally trailed behind her, looking out for some creatures foolish enough to attack them. However, his hopes ended up being crushed yet again. He kicked a pebble angrily. Stupid peaceful forest.

After about an hour of walking, the couple eventually managed to return to the camp, now smelling the delicious scent of Yugo’s cooking.

“We are back.” Eva sighed deeply in relief, brushing off a leaf that had managed to get stuck in her hair.

“Aaaaand…nobody seems to even care that we were gone.” Dally noted after seeing everyone casually sticking to their morning routines. They saw Ruel drinking his weird, hot and black morning potion, Yugo was frying a bunch of eggs over a fire and Amalia was too busy brushing her hair to even notice that they were approaching. Honestly…why had they even rushed so much?

“Ah, back again?” Ruel greeted them as he casually took a sip from his drink. “Done making out in the woods?”

Both lovers blushed and waved him off with a nervous laugh. “Make out? Who, we? Nah. We were just…uh…” Eva tried coming up with a believable excuse when Dally came to the rescue, filling in for her with a raised finger.

“…doing renaissance!”

Eva sighed at him, pushing his proudly raised finger down again while correcting him: “Reconnaissance, Dally.”

He only shrugged at her cluelessly. “Same thing!”

His girlfriend could only facepalm at that. Cra, have mercy…

Ruel had only grinned at them knowingly in the meantime. “Uh-huh. Dally, the guy who would sleep until noon if left unattended, would willingly get up early to do mere scouting? Nice try, kiddos, but you ain’t gonna fool this wise man right here.” He pointed at himself with his thumb, then shrugged casually. “I’ve been young once, too. I know how it goes.”

Eva eyed him mischievously as she folded her arms in front of her chest. “Ah, so was that one, or two centuries ago?”

The Enutrof frowned at her, clearly not amused, then eyed Dally in the same manner. “What do you see in this one, I wonder?” She wasn’t cute at all.

The redhead grinned at him as he put a hand around her waist und pulled her closer.

“To me she looks like a hundred bags of kamas would for you, old man.”

Ruel watched Eva’s face light up with pure happiness upon hearing him say these cheesy lines. From the way she fawned over him with those sparkling eyes, you might actually start believing that there was a sack of kamas hidden in each of them. Heh.

“You better keep good watch on such a fortune, then.” He told him with a cheeky grin. “I recommend locking her into a hidden, underground vault, so no one steals her.”

Rubi joined in on the fun. “Why go through the trouble? Just bury the treasure right here, right now. Just don’t forget to draw a map. Or don’t. All depending on whether you actually want to find her again at all.”

They both broke out into vigorous laughter before Eva eyed them with annoyance and kicked Ruel’s shin and poked Rubi’s eye, making them both curse her. Thanks for ruining the moment, you bastards.

Ruel and Rubi didn’t appreciate her actions very much. Especially Rubi seemed to be really annoyed, so he said: “Hey, blondie. Remember this ‘friendly banter’ business you threw at me yesterday?”

Eva looked down on him coldly and raised a brow, silently asking him what he was on about. She then saw him looking at her friends, then her, followed by assuming a smug look. The blonde Cra immediately knew what was up and whirled her arms around in a panic.

“Rubi, no-!” She tried to stop him by putting a hand over him but it was too late. The blade addressed the group with a very uncharacteristically happy and excited voice.

“Hey guys. Guess who climbed the stairs to adulthood last night?”

Everyone eyed them weirdly while Ruel choked on his drink, spit it out and kept coughing repeatedly. Eva for her part could only facepalm in silent disbelief. She was done. This was the end. There was no recovering from this.

But then:

“Stairs to adulthood?” Amalia asked with a raised brow and a shrug. “What’s that?”

“Did you find a ruin in the woods?” Yugo asked them excitedly. “Will you show me?”

Eva let out a deep sigh of relief. Cra be thanked for the existence of childish innocence. She was saved!

“Don’t listen to him, guys. He is lying. There were no stairs in that forest. Only trees and a lake.” Dally quickly tried to clear up the misunderstanding with a kind smile, causing Yugo to sulk sadly and Amalia to roll her eyes in disinterest. What a waste of time, then.

Eva narrowed her eyes on her boyfriend. Childish innocence AND Iopish inability to comprehend metaphors, she corrected herself mentally. Rubi for his part could do little but narrow his eye as well, although in his case it was out of utter disappointment as they watched Yugo and Amalia wordlessly returning to their earlier tasks, minding their own business.

“Morons…” He grumbled.

The blonde Cra eyed him smugly, placing a hand on her hip. “Nice try, demon. But it’s your loss.”

“My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined…” He told her with an annoyed growl, throwing a quick glance at the ignorant Amalia. “I handed this one to the moss-head on a silver platter and she just didn’t get it.” He looked down and sighed. “Iop brains…Iop brains everywhere.”

“Naaaw…there, there.” She teasingly patted his hilt, causing him to scowl at her.

“I shall have my revenge, woman!”

Ruel interrupted their little ‘friendly banter’ by clearing his throat, making Dally and Eva eye him curiously.

“Well, congratulations, you two.” He said with a knowing smile to which Dally could only grin happily, scratching the back of his head with one hand while forming a V with his other. Eva just played with her hair and averted her gaze with a blush. The old Enutrof produced two more cups from his bag and poured in more of his weird, dark drink with a friendly grin before handing them each one.

“Since we are now all fellow adults, I will let you have a taste of my special morning potion as well. It’s really good for getting you going for the day, gives you lots of energy. Might help you with replenishing the energy…” He coughed slyly. “…you might have spent at night.”

Eva eyed him embarrassedly but decided to remain silent as she looked at the weird drink in her hands. It was warm like tea and had a pleasant fragrance which was very uncommon for something that had its origin in Ruel. She wondered what he made this stuff out of and curiously took a sip from it to savor the taste. Bitter, yet not unpleasant. She kinda liked it.

Dally merely grinned at the man happily in the meantime, playfully hitting him on the shoulder. “No need for more energy, old man. I feel like a newborn man. I could tear out trees with my bare hands right now.” He sighed deeply, clearly content with his life. “It’s good to be alive.”

Eva smiled at him while Ruel just threw a curious look at her, silently asking her just what the hell she must have done to him to make him sound like that. He only got a cheeky grin and a wink in return. She ain’t telling. Dally had tried the drink out in the meantime, only to spit half of it out again in disgust.

“Bitter…” He whined as he stuck out his tongue. He was not a fan, huh.

“What a waste…” Ruel sighed at him as he shook his head. “…welcome to adulthood, Dally. Life is bitter, just like that potion.”

“But if you put in some sugar and milk, I think it would taste better?” The redheaded knight suggested while pointing at his drink. Ruel merely ripped the mug out of his grasp angrily.

“No. Life is bitter. End of discussion. If the drink is too strong, you are too weak.”

Dally frowned at the man with folded arms. “Taste has nothing to do with weakness. If something tastes bad, it just sucks.”

Eva pointed at Dally and nodded. “He actually has a point, Ruel. Taste is subjective.”

The old man eyed her in annoyance. “Which is likely why Dally is the only one who can actually stand a harpy like you, eh?”

Eva wordlessly sipped her drink as she kicked his shin again, even hitting the very same spot from earlier. That was Cra precision for you. Ruel suppressed a pained cry and eyed her darkly with teary eyes, but eventually decided it was better to let the matter rest.

“So, I assume my wise council paid off?” He then chose to ask Dally with a smirk to which Dally replied by offering the older man a fist bump.

“Worth every single kama I paid for it.”

This made Eva raise a brow at them as she took another sip of Ruel’s morning potion. “Wait, _you_ gave him the talk?” She eyed Ruel in disbelief. The man could only shrug at that.

“No one else seemed to want to.”

Eva sighed at that. Well, of course…nobody liked to do that, but still…

“…and you charged him money for it…?” She eyed him with quite some disgust. He was reaching a low she didn’t even think was possible to achieve. Who the bwork did that?

“Well, if you are good at something, never do it for free.” Ruel told her with a proud nod and folded arms. Eva narrowed her eyes at him and said with a serious voice:

“Pay it back to him. Do you have no shame?”

“But he said it was worth every kama just now.”

“He can’t count past two, anything he gets for money is worth every kama he paid for it.”

Dally eyed her confusedly. “Eh, but I was really grateful for his help. I think I might have made a fool out of myself if not for him.”

“That’s besides the point, Dally.” She told him with a tired sigh and pointed at Ruel accusingly. “He ripped you off like he always does. Friends don’t rip friends off. People usually get that piece of information for free.” She blushed slightly and leaned in closer to him, whispering: “If you still hadn’t known by now, I would have taught you instead, you know?”

Well, she was glad she had been spared the awkwardness of doing so, but she had been mentally prepared for it regardless. She had half expected that no one had enlightened Dally until recently, given his previous state as a lone wanderer with limited social interactions.

Hearing this, the red headed knight stood up energetically and held out his palm expectantly in front of Ruel. “Hand me back my money, you swindler! How dare you rip off a friend? I trusted you! Do you have no honor at all?”

“Tch.” The bearded man clicked his tongue angrily and eyed Eva sharply, only to receive an unimpressed scowl from her in return. “Why do you have to be like this, Eva?”

“Because you are a damn cheapskate and your constant penny-pinching is pissing me off.”

“I am waiting.” Dally told the white-haired man impatiently.

“How rude to ask an Enutrof for refunds, and after I have shared my potion with you, no less.” Ruel mumbled angrily, causing Dally to shoot back with gritted teeth and a raised fist:

“You mean that abominable black muck that tasted so vile, it might as well have been your old bath water for all I know?”

Eva spit out a mouthful of the drink and coughed vehemently as she eyed the drink in her almost empty cup critically. Wait, now that he mentioned it…what _was_ that stuff made off? But then again…it tasted and smelled too good to be bad. Ah, how conflicting…she put the cup aside for now in favor of folding her hands in front of her and eying the Enutrof sharply.

“Speaking of refunds, we need to talk about your kind gift you gave me a couple months back.”

Ruel froze instantly as he heard the tone in which she spoke. Crap, this Cra was pissed. Very pissed. This was dangerous. Even Dally got goose bumps from the aura his girlfriend emitted, and Rubi was seen trying to hide deeper into his sheath as well.

“W-what of it?” The old bounty hunter asked her with a nervous smile. Eva closed her eyes calmly and asked:

“When were you going to tell me that it was busted, exactly?”

“I-it was busted?” Ruel tried to feign ignorance but failed horribly under these scary circumstances. It was like facing Grougaloragran all over again. No, perhaps even _scarier_. Eva sighed in annoyance and leaned in closer on the man. Was she a freaking mafia boss or something?

“Let me tell you what I think, Ruel.” She told him dryly. “I think, you knew of the bag’s defect and realized you couldn’t sell this thing to anyone like that. I also think you thought you were clever by giving it to me as a present since you couldn’t sell it anyway. Lastly, I think you then realized you’ve created a good business opportunity to sell me lots of furniture, knowing full well I would throw out all of the previous trash that had been in it. Did I get the gist of it?”

Ruel visibly shrunk under the pressure, trying to laugh her anger off. “Well, if you put it like that, it kinda sounds bad, but looking at it positively, it’s still a haven bag, no?”

“Yes, and that would have been a very kind gift of you…if it wasn’t broken.” Eva told him with a scowl, then merely demanded: “Repair it.”

“Repair it!?” Ruel suddenly yelled at her indignantly while grabbing her by the shoulders, shaking her violently. “Are you out of your damn mind, woman? The sheer amount of rare materials I would have to pour into its restoration would cost me a fortune!”

Eva didn’t seem impressed by his declaration at all, merely stating: “Ten kamas are already a fortune for you, so excuse me if I am not really amazed by the scale of your words here.” She brushed his hands off her and eyed him sternly. “Plus, I believe you don’t seem to realize the importance the functionality of this haven bag carries for the whole group. A lack of reliable privacy equals a lack of a new way of stress relief we two have discovered for ourselves. In other words, a working bag leads to a happy Cra and Iop. An inoperable bag, however, will lead to a very _unhappy_ Cra and Iop.”

Catching on to her meaning and the loss of fun activities a broken haven bag would result in, Dally quickly put an arm around Ruel in a buddy-buddy way, yet only looked at him with the most intimidating grin the old man had ever seen the Iop sport on his lips. This appeared to have become a matter of great importance for said knight who now had made the restoration of Eva’s sacred bag his new main quest. And naturally so, given the legendary rewards that would await him once he would clear it.

“Ruel, my old friend. I must kindly implore you to heed this lady’s request.” He asked of him with a very forced smile. However, Ruel had faced scarier foes and survived seemingly hopeless odds already. He wouldn’t fold this easily. Hence why he defiantly declared:

“I refuse!”

Now clearly seeing the level of annoyance under the mask of a fake smile in form of a pulsing vein, Ruel was suddenly forced to gasp for air as Dally’s hug grew stronger and effectively made breathing more and more difficult. “But Ruel, I must beg you to reconsider. I _insist_.”

“Must I remind you of the old and sacred codex of men, Dally?” Ruel said with a nervous smile as he tried to free himself of the knight’s relentless grip.

Dally eyed him questioningly. “The one where you don’t talk about the brawl club?”

Ruel raised a brow in confusion. “What? No! Bros before hoes, Dally.”

Now it was the knight’s turn to look confused. “What do garden utensils have to do with anything here? I am a farm hand no longer, must I remind you?”

Ruel narrowed his eyes on him in utter disbelief. How daft could you possibly be? He sighed deeply and looked at Rubi, silently sharing a moment with him. It was almost as if he wanted to say “I somehow feel your pain, man. I really do.”

Rubi sent a look back that could be interpreted as: “You haven’t even seen half of it, really.”

Meanwhile, Junior who had quietly sat next to his master all this time had finally decided that all this strange hostility that had been directed at Ruel had reached a critical level. Therefore, he did what any good dhreller would do. Protect its master by biting his assaulter’s foot.

“Ouch! Hey, what gives, Junior?” Dally cried out in pain and eyed the small creature woefully who would only glare at him determinedly. The message was clear. Leave my master alone, meanie!

That was the moment they heard Ruel cheer a happy “Attaboy!” before quickly grabbing his lovely pet and jumping into his own haven bag before Dally could get a hold of him again. “Shop’s closed. Get lost, kiddos!”

When Dally and Eva saw the bag stick out its tongue at them, they merely looked down on it coldly as they folded their arms in front of their chests and frowned.

“Tch, the coward ran away.” Dally noted with a click of the tongue. Eva sighed, sounding equally as disappointed with the old man.

“Patience, Dally. He will have to get out there eventually.”

“So we wait?”

She nodded and crouched down before the bag, smirking evilly. “We wait.”

And thus, the couple sat in front of the bag like two cats in front of a mouse hole. Predators waiting for the prey. Sure, Eva had been aware that getting an Enutrof, especially Ruel, to do something that wasn’t in his immediate favor came close to be nothing short of fighting an uphill battle, but she wouldn’t forfeit this one so easily. She would fight for her haven bag’s restoration. If needed to, she would even pay Ruel for it. But only if she couldn’t get the old coot to do so otherwise. She would be damned if she let this stingy cheapskate rip her off again and again. Somebody just had to teach this guy a lesson in morals and discipline, after all. She was so done with getting the short end of the stick when dealing with him.

However, things came quite differently once Amalia, now having finally finished with her morning routine, walked them by only to spot a change in Eva’s looks. Naturally, being the princess that she was, the young Sadida immediately had to know how her bodyguard had achieved such a rapid improvement so quickly. Perhaps she could copy it, after all.

“Eva, your skin is glowing!” She noted with sparkling eyes, rudely feeling up Eva’s face like a curious child.

“I-it is?” Eva asked her friend in surprise, not having yet had the chance to look into a mirror herself. A flaw Amalia quickly tried to fix for her, handing her a hand mirror.

“It’s so pretty and smooth! Have a look yourself.”

Eva did exactly that and barely could recognize her own self. Tracing her own face in amazement, she had to realize that Amalia had been right. She, indeed, had started looking quite pretty for some reason. She smiled softly, being happy about that fact.

 Amalia, however, wanted details, so she quickly asked: “How did you manage to do that? Did you buy a new crème or something? Lend it to me!”

“Uh, but I didn’t really…” She helplessly looked around as she tried to comprehend what possibly could have brought the change until her gaze fell on her boyfriend, who merely tilted his head at her questioningly as she blushed in realization. “Could it have been…?” She mumbled quietly to herself, considering the possibility.

“What? Tell me!” Amalia remained stubborn, dragging her best friend with her as they went off somewhere where the boys weren’t. “If it’s embarrassing, you can tell me in private. Come on.”

“No, princess, I can’t!” She told Amalia nervously as she tried to break free from her grip. To no avail. When it came down to beauty and fashion, this girl’s hidden potential fully unfolded, leaving the normally stronger Cra no room for resistance. Not even grabbing a tree’s branch managed to halt Amalia’s forceful pull, as it merely broke off under the pressure of the younger Sadida’s thirst for knowledge. Evangelyne held out a hand towards Dally, silently begging him to safe her, but the knight knew better than get in the way of this so called ‘girls talk’. There was no way of stopping Amalia when she was like this, aside from knocking her unconscious…and, well, he doubted that doing so was a good idea.

Hence why he could only clap his hands together apologetically, followed by pointing at Ruel’s bag he still had to guard. Seeing this, Eva let go of all hope and merely let herself be dragged away with a whiny face. She had been abandoned!

Dally sighed sadly as he continued watching the bag in a bored manner. It had stopped being fun the moment Eva had left his side, so his eagerness to remain sitting here dwindled quickly. When the smell of breakfast eventually reached his nose and Yugo brought forth the good news of it having been prepared at last, Dally’s body almost seemed to levitate and get pulled into the direction of food by itself.

With his guard post now clearly vacant, the bag slowly opened up again, letting Junior curiously stick out his head as he looked left and right, sniffing out potential dangers. When his nose failed to identify any threats, the young dhreller jumped out and poked the bag three times to inform his master that the coast was clear. Not even a second later, the old man climbed out of his bag and grinned in triumph, sharing a low five with his trusty partner. Another scammed customer safely avoided. Hah, suckers!

Well, at least for the time being…

\---Bonus scenes---

Several years later, at a place far from human civilization, a single house stood, built in as well as around a tree. In it, a family of four lived their idyllic lives together. The legendary Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove and Lady Evangelyne, as well as their twins of four years, Elely and Flopin.

That’s right, that small house in the middle of nowhere, it was the Sadlygrove residence.

Said family was currently sitting at the table and enjoyed a nice lunch together. Elely watched her father in awe as he managed to devour a steak whole and was eager to attempt to do the same thing, yet visibly struggled as her mouth hadn’t been even remotely as big as her father’s had been, causing daddy Percedal to chuckle at her amusedly while mommy merely sighed at her daughter’s antics and proceeded to cut the meat into smaller portions so the poor Iopette wouldn’t choke on her meal. Flopin, having already devoured his steak, smelled the chance to get an extra portion for himself by stealing a good chunk of his sister’s portion with a swift motion.

“Yoink!”

“Oi, you cretin! That’s mine!” Elely quickly protested as she tried to jump over the table to strangle her brother, when her father merely pulled her back.

“I know it’s tempting, but no fighting at the table.” He told her with a gentle smile, causing her to sulk.

“But Flo-Flo stole my food!” She objected, to which her mother merely stood up from her seat, took her daughter’s plate with one hand and ruffled her hair with her other one playfully.

“There’s plenty of food for everyone. Your Dad felt the need to decimate half a herd of boars, so we will be eating nothing but that for the rest of the week, I reckon.” She added the last part with a heavy sigh as she headed for the kitchen to refill her daughter’s plate. She came back soon after and placed the food before her, chuckling slightly from the way her eyes began sparkling and drool came leaking out of her mouth. Like father, like daughter, it seemed.

“There you go, sweetheart. And no more stealing.” The last bit was directed at her son who visibly crumbled under his mother’s stern look.

“Sorry, Mama…”

“Cut him some slack, Eva. Flopin is a growing man. He needs lots of meat to grow tall and strong like his Dad, right?” His father winked at him and playfully flexed his right arm, to which the young Cra eagerly followed his example, flexing his own arms with a wide grin as well.

“Right!”

Eva sighed at that and took a seat once more, leaning her head on her right hand casually. “You _strong_ men do know that you also need to eat your veggies to grow strong, right?”

She smirked when she saw both of them stick out their tongues in disgust.

“If you say so, Mom…” Flopin sighed in resignation and stabbed a piece of carrot with his fork to bring it to his mouth unwillingly. He hated eating carrots, but Mom smiled when he did, so he would. For Mom!

His father was visibly less eager to follow his son’s example, choosing to listlessly play with his veggies on his plate as he mumbled: “Spent all these years growing up so I wouldn’t have to eat roots and grass anymore only to end up having to do so anyway…”

“If you ate the stuff together with the meat, it wouldn’t taste so bad, you know.” Eva told her boyfriend with a teasing smirk.

“Yeah, but it would diminish the tasty flavor of the meat.” Dally continued to whine until he noticed Flopin poking his elbow to catch his attention. Looking down to his son, he heard him whispering.

“Mommy will be sad if you don’t eat your veggies.”

Dally took a glance at Eva who had overheard her son and was now smiling as she playfully rubbed her eyes with a fake pout. Her son pointed at his mother worriedly as if to tell his father:

“See? See?”

Seeing this, Papa Percedal could do little but smile in defeat as he lifted up his plate, nodded at his son proudly and began shoving the rest of the plate’s contents into his mouth. Flopin seemed content enough with that, choosing to quickly decimate the remaining veggies on his plate as well.

Eva giggled contently as she got up again, planted a kiss on Flopin’s head, followed by her boyfriend’s one and took each of their now empty plates to bring them back to the kitchen. “My, what good boys I have.”

Hearing this, father and son shared a proud fist bump with each other. Mama was content. Mission accomplished.

“Whot aboot meh?” Elely objected with a mouth filled to the brink with food, having quickly shoved in everything she could so she also got to proudly show off an empty plate like her brother and father had.

Everyone looked at her briefly before started laughing loudly.

“With an appetite like yours, you will undoubtedly become the tallest and strongest Iopette the world of twelve has ever seen.” Eva told her as she laughed up her sleeve, collecting her daughter’s empty plate as well. The redheaded girl could only smile proudly at her mother’s words.

“Right, so whose turn is it to do the dishes?” Dally asked his kids with a grin, only to have them both point their fingers at each other accusingly.

“Elely’s!” “Flopin’s!” Realizing they had both tried to shift the responsibility to the other, they began glaring at each other evilly and with a growl.

“Alright, alright. I get it.” Dally said with a deep sigh as he took the plates his girlfriend had collected and headed over to the kitchen. “Mommy cooked our meal so I will clean the plates, Elely will wipe them off and Flopin will put them away. Deal?”

“Deal!” The kids cheered in unison and followed after their father. If Papa helped, this would be over in no time.

Eva smiled contently and yelled after them: “And no breaking the plates. That means you, Dally.”

“Come on, that only happened once, Eva.” She heard him whine and giggled in mild amusement.

“You look content with your life, Evangelyne.” She heard a certain Shushu blade address her as he hung on the wall, overlooking the living room. She went over to him and put both her hands on each of her hips, offering him a wide grin.

“Should I not be? I have my own house, two adorable kids, a lovely boyfriend and a strong Shushu guardian overlooking everything. This is good enough.”

Rubi chuckled. “And here I thought you Cras all wanted shiny medals to pin on your uniforms and stuff.”

Eva narrowed her eyes in annoyance as she looked away. “Well, guess I am not like other Cras then.”

“That’s fine. I like you bunch more the way you are. Iop brains or not.” He admitted with an implied grin. Eva put her hands together behind her back and smiled at the Shushu blade cutely.

“You look happy with your life as well, Rubi.”

“Well, what can I say? I guess you guys grew on me. Even the noisy miniature versions of you and Dally-o.”

“That’s good.” Eva nodded contently. “The kids would probably cry for weeks if they found out their _cool_ _and awesome_ guardian secretly hated them.”

“Oh god, please. No more crying. I am happy they finally grew out of the toddler stage.” He told her woefully, probably remembering all these noisy nights from not so long ago. The blonde Cra couldn’t help but sigh agreeingly.

“Yeah, those were quite some sleepless nights, indeed…”

Suddenly, their talk got interrupted by a knock on the door, which caught her by surprise.

“Did you order a pizza or something?” Rubi asked her in wonder.

“We are in the middle of nowhere, Rubi. Where would I order a pizza from?”

“Beats me.” He disappeared in a flash, only to reappear in her right hand, looking up to her eagerly. “You gonna open the door or what? I hope it’s a bandit. Haven’t beaten up some idiots ever since you bunch built this house.”

Eva frowned at that. The whole point of building this house out here was to have some peace and quiet. Having bandits show up here would completely defeat the purpose. Taking a firm grip on Rubi, she approached the door, opening it confidently while holding Rubi ready to attack if necessary.

Which ended up not being the case as the one to greet her on the other side was no one else but Amalia, panting heavily and trying to catch her breath. The blonde Cra blinked at her in mild surprise, not having expected her visit.

“Amie? What’s wrong? You look rather tired.” She eyed her friend worriedly and offered her to come in, which the green haired princess did.

“Came…running…” The tired princess wheezed.

“All the way from the portal?” Eva asked her in bewilderment. The nearest portal was quite far from here. “Why? Did something happen?”

“I’ve finally….figured it out…Eva.” She took a seat on the family’s couch and leaned back exhaustedly.

“Figured out what?”

“The stars to adulthood.” The princess pointed a finger at her. “You…with Dally. I finally cracked the code!”

Rubi and Eva eyed each other with narrowed eyes before the Shushu blade regarded the Sadida princess with quite some ridicule. “Took you long enough, moss-head. You guys keep giving Dally-o quite some shit, but aren’t you the actual Iop-brain here?”

Eva scratched her cheek awkwardly and shrugged. “Yeah, I thought that stopped being a secret the moment I started having kids, you know?” What did Amalia think they had come from? Fairy dust?

“That’s not what I meant!” The younger woman yelled at them, trying to mask the faint blush on her cheeks. “The problem isn’t _that_ you did it, but _when_! On that night all these years ago. In that forest! I never knew!”

Eva sighed at her. “Well, that was kind of the whole point. Knowing how you would react, I naturally wouldn’t tell you.” She frowned at her and folded her arms in front of her chest. “You would have just kept teasing me endlessly for it, anyway.”

“That’s exactly it, Eva!” The young princess whined. “Just think about all the teasing opportunities I missed by not knowing. It pains my heart!” She pulled out a bunch of cards she had written stuff on beforehand. “I tried coming up with some things on my way here, so let me catch up on my missed opportunities. How’s this:”

She cleared her throat before singing: “Dally and Eva, sitting in a tree.” She tried to suppress a laugh. “That one is especially funny, given how you live in one, get it? Anyway, K-I-S-S-…”

Eva, clearly not amused, merely narrowed her eye on her best friend and drily told her: “Leave.”

“Eh? No way. I just got here, and I’ve still got more. How’s this: How do you call the relationship of Dally and Eva? _Tristeva_.” She burst out into a laughing fit. “Get it? Triste-Eva. Because after being with such a barbarian like Dally, you will be all gloomy and sad.”

“How funny…” Eva deadpanned with a forced smile and her eyebrows quivering from pure anger. She grabbed Amalia and pulled her over her shoulder, heading to the entrance with gritted teeth.

“Aww, see? That’s what I meant. You are all grown up and boring now. You used to light up like a Christmas tree when I did that. There is no fun teasing you about it now…” Amalia said with a depressed frown.

“Yeah, this is exactly why I had to secretly keep my own haven bag to sneak into with Dally at night. And all of that just because I couldn’t afford to let you know or I would have never heard the end of it.” Eva said with an annoyed expression. “And you honestly wonder why I never told you.”

Amalia gasped at her. “You had a freaking haven bag? And you let me sleep in the wilderness?” She hit Eva’s back angrily with her fists before shouting: “That’s it, Eva. You are fired!”

“I stopped working for you years ago, princess.” Eva replied with a roll of her eyes.

“Well, as coincidence has it, your position is still vacant after all these years. Want it back? Dad would even triple your old wage.”

This made Eva halt on her tracks for a second, wide eyed. “T-t-triple?”

Amalia’s expression returned to the one she sported earlier, narrowing her eyes at Eva annoyedly. “You are fired.”

“You little…” Eva clenched her fists and had to try really hard to not smack it against her old friend’s face. Really, sometimes Eva was not at all surprised that her old bodyguard position was still vacant. Who else but her had the patience to deal with this brat’s antics?

“Well, guess what you are, Amie?” The blonde Cra said with a smile as she placed the princess down in front of the entrance.

“What?” The green haired woman asked, clearly not impressed.

“LEAVING!” Eva yelled as she slammed the door shut in front of her.

The princes blinked a few times at the now closed door before yelling: “Well, who wants to visit you anyway!”

“You were the one who came, idiot!” Eva’s voice could be heard from the other side.

“Well, this was the last time ever!”

“Good!”

“Good!”

Amalia pouted and turned around angrily, kicking away a pebble and sitting down on the stairs leading up to the doorway, letting her head rest on both her hands.

“Stupid Eva. Stupid house in the middle of nowhere. Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

A couple of minutes passed with Amalia sulking in silence as she wondered what she should do now, being in all the way out here far off from any kind of civilization and way too tired to head back to the portal on foot. She sighed sadly, thinking she might have to camp out here tonight. Maybe she shouldn’t have teased Eva so much, huh? But it couldn’t be helped. She kind of missed the old times.

She sighed again. Too bad that Eva was now way too mature and experienced to get teased anymore. Amalia had always liked that about her friend before.

Suddenly she heard the door opening up again behind her with Elely and Flopin coming out to stand before her. Flopin gently hit her head with a half-hearted karate chop.

It didn’t hurt at all but Amalia figured that it hadn’t been the kid’s objective from the start. She eyed him curiously, albeit still pouting. “That’s rude. What gives?”

“You made Mama sad. That’s bad.”

Elely formed a fist and hit Amalia against the arm next. This time it hurt. This girl never held back.

“Don’t bully Mama, meanie!”

“Ouch! You are so like your father.” Amalia noted with an amused smile, which made Elely put her hands behind her back to let it rest against them casually and with a wide grin.

“Thanks, auntie.”

Amalia smirked at her evilly and returned the favor by forming a fist and hitting the smaller girl’s arm as well. “Who are you calling auntie? I am way too young to be called that. Call me big sis.”

“Only if you manage to defeat me.” The girl said cockily, rubbing the spot under her nose while assuming a confident pose.

“Mom said you are still too young to fight, sis.” Flopin warned her, only to get yelled at by her.

“But Dad says it’s fine, so there!”

“But even Dad has to listen to Mom…” The young boy objected, causing Elely to turn around with folded arms.

“Only when she gets really mad.”

“Anyway…” Flopin decided to change the topic, addressing Amalia once more who had just watched them with an amused smile up until now. “Mama says you can come in again if you behave.”

Amalia blinked at them in mild bewilderment. “She did?”

“Yep. But if you make her cry, we will tell Papa. He will get suuuper mad.” Flopin warned her with a raised finger. Elely laughed at that.

“Yes, one time, when Mama was pregnant with us and they went shopping, some jerk said Mama looked like a fat pandawa. Mama said Papa got so mad, he grabbed the guy’s face and rammed it into the nearest wall so hard, he kept being stuck there.”

“They then got kicked out of the store for making a scene.” Flopin added with a grin. “Mama got so angry, she shot the manager with a frozen arrow, turning him into a snowman. Papa laughed all the way home, apparently.”

“Huh, now I wish I could have seen that.” Amalia said with a kind smile, listening in on the story eagerly.

“Us too.” They both sighed in unison. “Too bad we hadn’t been born yet.”

“Your parents were always like that, though.” The green haired princess told them with a grin.

“Really?” The kids’ eyes sparkled with hope as they grabbed each of Amalia’s hands and forced her to get up. “Tell us, tells us!”

“Well, there was that one time when-…” Amalia started telling a story while the kids dragged her back into the house, closing the door behind them.

For the rest of the day, nothing but joy and laughter could be heard coming from inside the Sadlygrove residence.

\---+---

“Hey Dad.” Flopin asked his father who was currently busy fixing a hole Elely had accidentally punched into the wall due to over-excitement and not really understanding the extend of her Iopish strength. Elely was hiding behind a corner for exactly that reason, not really wanting to risk getting a lecture from her father for having caused problems yet again.

“Hm?” He mumbled, unable to speak due to having a bunch of nails pressed between his lips as he tried aligning a plank so that it would cover the hole properly.

“What are the stairs to adulthood? Auntie Amalia mentioned them. Do you grow up immediately once you climb them?”

Removing the nails from his mouth, Dally merely eyed his son with a knowing smile. “I’ve kept telling her, there were no stairs anywhere. She never believed me, always thinking that there was some hidden meaning. That’s Amalia for you, stubborn as always. Ask Rubi if you need to know. He made the lie up in the first place.”

“Okay, will do.”

Papa Percedal watched his son trail off, presumedly to find Rubilax. He chuckled amusedly and shrugged. Kids will be kids.

\---+---

“Rubi, Rubi!” Elely called out to the sword hanging on the wall, making it open its eye and look down on her in wonder.

“Oh, if it isn’t the little Iopette. What’s wrong, little one? If it’s about borrowing me again, I will have to decline. Your Mom will get angry.”

“That’s not it, Rubi. Auntie Amalia mentioned the stairs to adulthood. What are they?”

The Shushu blade’s eye lit up mischievously as he spoke with an implied grin: “You really ought to ask your mother that, little one. But do me a favor and let me see the scene when you do.” He chuckled to himself.

“Alright, then let’s go to Mama.” Elely held out her hand for Rubi to come to her, which he shortly after did by appearing in her hand in a flash.

“This should be good.” He muttered.

\---+---

“Mama?” The kids both asked their mother after having found her on the second floor’s balcony, hanging up the laundry to dry.

“Yes, my little doves?” She asked them sweetly, still continuing her work while Rubi rested in Elely’s hand, chuckling quietly to himself.

“What are the stairs to adulthood?” Flopin asked her curiously, causing the mother Cra’s eyes to narrow themselves in realization. She sighed bitterly. That Amalia and her big mouth…

“Well, what do you think it is?” She asked her kids curiously, watching Elely put a finger on her lips, gently tapping it as she thought about it really hard.

“Maybe a stairway that will turn you into an adult once you climb it?” She eyed her mother excitedly shortly after. “If that’s it, you gotta tell us where it is! I finally get to fight with Papa once I am grown up, right?”

Eva laughed in mild amusement. “Absolutely not. You two are growing like weeds as you are. If I could, I would make it so that you could never grow up and stay as you are forever.”

Flopin frowned, clearly displeased. “But then I can’t protect you, Mom.”

Eva knelt down to his level and placed a hand on his head, stroking it gently. “Haven’t you gotten this quite backwards, Flo-Flo? Mommy and Daddy are here to protect you, not the other way around.”

He looked down in disappointment. “But I wanna…”

His mother stood up and shrugged playfully. “Well, all I can say is that you will figure out what the stairway to adulthood is by the time you are about to ascend it. I just hope that it’s gonna be a loooong time from now.”

“So wait. You meant there is no shortcut to growing up so I can get to brawl with Papa?” Elely asked her confusedly, causing Eva to merely shake her head at her slowly and with a kind smile.

“No, sweet-pea. There is no such thing.”

This caused Elely to groan and stomp the ground in frustration. “Super lame!” She yelled, then gasped when her foot sunk into the wooden floor, producing yet another hole for her father to fix later.

“Ah, crap.”

“Elely! What the bwork!” She heard her father yell from downstairs in a mixture of disbelief and frustration.

“Sorry, Papa!” The young Iopette cried out embarrassedly. She really hadn’t meant to. Her mother could only sigh at her as her hand found its way to her forehead, silently wondering if this house would still be standing by the time this child grew up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, you made it! Congrats! Hope you had fun! There is really much I wanted to say at this point, but it's almost 3:00 in the morning, so I will make this short. Firstly, writing this has cleansed my soul. I seriously adore these two more than it's healthy, really. The Tristeva missionary will continue to PREACH!
> 
> Moving on, there quite obviously was mature content in here, and I hope that was not a problem for anyone. I figured I would keep it cute and mostly innocent, given how it was their first time. Let me know if you enjoyed it and want more of this stuff in the future, since I have more planned. If not, however, I will just have to accept that I might not be as good at this as I had thought and will refrain from doing so in the future. In the end, I am just a hobby author, after all. :P
> 
> Speaking of future chapters, I still have lots of material to work with, but my next chapter would likely skip several episodes, so I was wondering if anyone had ideas or suggestions of what to do next before I start jumping forward too much. Please, feel free to suggest scenes and ideas you would like to see me have a go at. As long as it's Tristeva and I manage to construct a chapter around it, I shall deliver.
> 
> Lastly, I have a Discord for my fanfictions where my readers can easily come in contact with me. Granted, I haven't added a Wakfu channel yet since there aren't any Wakfu readers on it yet, but I could always fix that if anyone is interested in joining. The link is: discord.gg/EcF823z
> 
> Also: The idea for the sketch with Eva's personifications of reason and desire was inspired by this pic which has become my new favorite pic on the internet :D
> 
>  
> 
> ****  
>   
> 


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